The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-11-27

giving, let your requests be ma lie known
unto God, and the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding, shall keep
your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus. Phil. iv, 81.
Give thanks to God in every thing:
For the cross he bid thee bear;
For the flowers beside thy path that spring;
For the thorns that wound thee there;
For the sunshine Booming on thy way,
That makes the journey sweet;
For the gloom that gathers while yet tits day;
For it urges on thy feet
To the blessed world, where clouds no more
Are seen upon the heavenly shore.
If one were to give me dish of sand,
saying there were particles of iron in it,
might feel for them with the finger in
vain. But let a magnet sweep through it,
and that would draw to itself the most in
visible particles by the power of attrac-
ton. The unthaukful heart, like the
finger in the sand, discovers no mercies.
But let thankful spirit sweep through
the day, and as the magnet finds the
iron, soft will find in every hour some
heavenly blessings-only the iron in Gods
sand is gold.-Henry Ward Beecher.
Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his
sanctuary; praise him in the armament
of his power. Praise him for his mighty
acts; praise him according to his excellent
greatness. Praise him with the sound of
the trumpet; praise him with the psaltery
and the harp. Praise him with the tim
brel and dance; praise him with stringed
instruments and organs. Praise him up
on the loud cymbals; praise him upon the
high sounding cymbals. Let everything
that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise
ye the Lord.-Psdln,s.
Each has his own personal occa-
sion for humble but deep gratitude to
God. We may not open very fully this
theme. 1t is too tender and too sacred.
The occasion may be a yelled one
"Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth."
During the year God has been better to
us in his providences, many can sincere
ly say, than their fears or expectations.
Sorrow came in the night, but joy in the
morning. The opening of the year was
clouded by sickness, disappointment,
wearing trials, and apparently impend-
ing trouble. but the year is going out
with unexpected blessings of material
or spiritual nature. "He doeth all things
we'll" Let us enter into his sanctuary
with Thanksgiving, and consecrate to him
our best affections and services Zion's
Herald.
The essential idea of Thankspiy-
ing Day is the sense of genuine graft.
tude. And yet spirit of actual thank
fulness is probably the rarest and highest
achievement of human nature. No end
in the world is there of patience, forti-
tude and unselfish devotion; and when
one sees how many are heroically striv-
ing to make the best out of what is, in
such innumerable ways, hard, hard lot
to bear, one cannot Withhold the trib-
ute of admiration. Heartfelt thankful
ness, however, seems to demand such ex-
hilaration OF spirit, such power of forget
ting or rising above loss and pain, such
range OF imagination to soar beyond the
temporal into the realm of the eternal
that only at distant intervals is a mind
encountered that is abidingly capable of
it. And yet a single hour of genuine
gratefulness is so rich and sweet an ex-
perience, such blisstul heaven within,
such a triumphant deliverance from
haunting cares and breads, that every
festival that helps toward insuring it
ought to enshrine itself in the affections
of all.
Let us be thankful for our posi- .
tive blessings. OF the excellent John New
ton it is related that when reading the ex-
preston of the Apostle Paul, "By the
grace of God am what am" he paus-
ed for a moment, and then thoughtfully
and seriously said, 81 am not what wish
W OS1 AOo Whub AOPo W Dt1 uOU Wudb l.
expect to be, but thankfully I can say,
by the grace of God am what amr"
So we may not have all we could wish or
hope or ask for from the kind Giyer of all
good. But every one of us can say that
through the ceaseless goodness of God
We have numberless positive blessings.
We have life, health, food, raiment,
friends, dwellings, to cover us, social en-
ioyments and multiplied family bless
Ings. There are homes for the orphan,
hospitals for the sick and suffering, and
charities for the poor and needy. In pub
lie there is peace in our borders, occnpa-
ion for our people, prosperity in our
laws to protect us, conscience
schools to instruct, the press
% inform, homes that are safe and hap
1y, and all the institutions of education
md religion sustained and prospered.