The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1886-11-30
THANKSGIVING SERMON
At the Union Services Yesterday
by the Rev. Ii. +. Boiler.
A General Review of Gods Mer-
cies-A Hit at Anarchists
and BoycOtters.

terrain church very large audience
Was present, to listen to a carefully
prepared programme as follows:
Organ voluntary, by Mr.. Chance
invocation, Rev. Pugh chorus OF
mems voices, Y. NJ. G.. \. chorus
reading of scriptures, Rev. Tate
hymn, congregation; prayer, Rev.
Jones; solo, song, Mis- Gallie; song,
Memories of GAlilee," Y, NJ. c. A.
Quartette; prayer, Rev. GIllispie ;
cOrnet solo, Mr. Fred Van Camp !;
hymn, congregation. The sing ne of
Miss Gallie and the Y. NJ. e. a.
Quartette was very much enjoyed and
! many were the praises lavished upon
both. Rev. Tate read the l36th
Psalm beginning: "Oh give thanks
unto the Lord for His mercy endureth
forever" The chief interest of the
occasion of course, centered in the
sermon and it was delivered in a
most mastery manner by Rev. B, F.
Boiler of the Congregational
church. Rev. Boiler took his text
from the fifth and sixth verses of the
fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, as
follows:
Behold have taught you statutes and
judgments, even as the Lord my God COM
manded me, that you should do SO in the
land wither We go TO possess 1t.
Keep therefore and do thou, for this is
your wisdom and your understanding in
the sight of the nation, which shall hear
all these statutes and say surely this great
patton is wise and understanding peo-
ple.'
The speaker then said in substance
as follows:
Fame and wisdom Of a nation is
to be tested solely by her obedience
to God. For America, for every
nation, no other criterion is needed.
We may have many tests, God has
but one. If the nations ideal be
righteousness and wisdom, she will be
great and strong; if base or evil, she
will sooner or later perish because of
her iniquity. Not only great
ness and goodness ought to
arouse our gratitude, not simply
national prosperity, but spiritual.
There is much Of selfishness in orr
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES so blessed in ma
tiOnal things we overlook the spirit
ual. Because God has been SO good
to us in giving us prosperity and
riches, we forget the riches of His
Grace According to this test what
has the poor man, or the smaller,
humber nation to be thankful for ?
But has He not blessed them and all
of us in spiritual gifts and do
not these call for gratitude? Yea,
infinitely more since they are infinite
ly higher.
We are called by the chief execu-
tive of the nation to "give thanks to
the Ruler of the Universe for our
continued enjOyHents of a free gov
eminent, for renewal of business
prosperity, all that makes nation
great.
What is it that makes a nation
great? What cOnduces to that glory
or shame? We are either giving our
influence to elevate and save our ma
ton, or We are fastening her on to
destruction. He is the best and tru-
est patriot who has most deeply
learned the truth that, righteousness
exalteth nation and that sin is the
of any people" What then,
is our nations ideal, right or wrong,
noble or base, because We are SO rich
in wealth, or because God has blessed
us with freedom, truth, righteousness,
or mercy to the poor and afflicted.
What are we most thankful for?
Mans gratitude is the measure of his
soul, and it is so with nation. Even
a worldly man may be grateful for
his success in business and prosper
ity, but it takes child Of God to be
grateful for Christening sorrow. Ma
tional gratitude IS apt to be in the
line of worldly accumulation, while I
the real motive for gratitude should
be wisdom, understanding and a
spirit of obedience to His statutes. A
mans gratitude is always in line with
his ideal, the higher the ideal the
higher the gratitude. IT'S so with
4 nation; her gratitude is according
to her ideal. The highest ideal of
many nations has been their conquests
IN wars. The Assyrians were peO-
pie of poetry and sculpture, yet they
we're people of frightful fierceness,
.orturing their prisoners and destroy.
ny like tornado of fire." But did
his bloody people prosper? No;
hey passed away, surrounded by the
hatred of all the nations,
md even so was it with Egypt.
Are we a wsr-loving people? Is
,ur highest gratitude for conquest2
Thanks we do not need to plead guilty.