The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-11-27
THANKSGIVING SERVICES.
FONT STREET CHURCH.

There was 4 large and representa-
tive audience at this church, the
cditice being well-flled. The de-
corations wereremarkably handsome.
A floral harp of yellow crysanthe-
NUNS formed the center piece,
standing against the choir railing. In
front of the desk rose pillar of
green and yellow, and on either side
we're banks and punches of verdure,
comprising fern, palm and other
foliage.
The services began by the congre-
cation singing the l0o0th hymn, of
which the following is the opening
stanZa:-
o God, beneath thy guiding hand,
Our ext ed fathers crossed the sea,
And when they trod the wintry strand,
With prayer and psalm they worship
ped thee.
Rev. S. L. Bishop offered up
prayer of thanksgiving, followed by
an anthem from the choir.
Rev. j. A. Cruzan gave out hymn
heartily sung by the congregation.
Mr.. Cruzan took for the text of
his Thanksgiving discourse the words,
'Be We thankful" 1t required
genuine JOY in the heart, he said, to
make person truly thankful. No
capital of brains or energy was re-
ouired to set a grumbler up in bust
ness. They were met together this
morning TO obey the injunction Of
the text. With brief summing up
of the numberless causes they had
for gratitude to God, he proceeded
to elaborate the idea that they should
be thankful for their nativity, citing
the love of their native land i'm
planted in the hearts of all nation
alities. 1t was not for the material
greatness of their country that he
felt thankful to-day, weighty as
that reason of gratitude undoubtedly
was. He rather thanked God for
the peace and brotherhood pervading
their nation, after the terrible dis
turbance that racked it from center
to circumference Il score of years
ago. 1t took years to bring about
the clusping of hands over the
bloody chasm between North and
South. but those years had come
and gone, landing the country in
peace. The completeness of the
happy change was exemplilied in
the peaceful revolution of last
autumn, whereby the very political
party that hid been identified with
the desperate attempt to break up
the Union, had by the peaceful
exercise of popular suffrages been
returned to power at Washington
from which it had been excluded
for quarter of century. The
preacher went on with glowing elo-
quence to forecast the mightier
revolutions that were still to sweep
over America, in the subjugation OF
every system of evil, all the opera
tons to that end ever emanat'ng
from the grand old center of Ply
mouth Rock. AS a Christian man
he felt grateful to God for their
native land. There was still much
to be deplored there, as in every
other country, from religious point
of view. Yet the forces of sin were
twenty times stronger, and those
of righteousness proportionately
feebler, hundred years ago thar
now. The story of the cross
never carried more influence witt
humanity than to-day. Never was
the Bible so widely published ant
purchased by the masses of men ms
at the present time. The preacher
recalled the boast of Vollaire thai
two centuries would witness the eX'
tincton of the Christian religion
and set against it the growing supre'
macy of the gospel, as attested by
the success attending home ant