The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1889-12-03

- 6OA0O1 ud1 :
that they kept their first Thanksgiving
o: What kind of day did they make
OF 1t? They made it feast day, genu-
ne least day. And every New England
boy has been glad of that ever since.
For why? Because he likes feast days.
And why shouldn't he? A boy who was
born to eat; boy with such immeasur-
able room for disposing Of things. You
can never seem to get him quite full, you
know. Feast him till you begin to be
anxious about him, and yet he will want
something in his pocket to finish off
with. And why not? He was born to
eat. He was born to grow. And we
grow by eating. And he was made to
enjoy it. Think of his appetite. Hun
CRY? Of course he is, most of the time,
If he is a healthy boy. So let him feast,
once in while, and enjoy it. There is
nothing more natural to him. And
there is nothing that will make him
more grateful than to fill him up we'll.
Indeed, this is the very thing that stirs a
large share of all our gratitude, that God
has given us rain from heaven and
fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with
food and glsdness." 1t is the very thing
the Lord bids US be glad and rejoice in.
So let us eat and drink and be grateful.
Grateful to God, first of all, dear chill
dren, for the bounties of the feast, never
forgetting how "every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above;" and
then grateful, too, let me add to-day, to
those old Pilgrim Fathers for giving us
the feast. l want you all, friends, to
think kindly and lovingly Of them to-day.
We are sometimes told that the Pilgrims
were stern old men. And so they were,
about their rights, and their duties, and
their liberties. They would stand for
them till they died. But at their fire
sides, in all the sweet ministries of home
and love, they were as tender as a
mother, and they were genial and jovial
in all hallowed good fellowship. They
liked good dinner, and a fair measure
of innocent mirth, as well as anybody,
else they would never have made their
first Thanksgiving time of such long
and glad feasting. For that is what they
did make Of it, a long and joyous feast.
6. But why so joyous? What reasons
had they for keeping that first Thanks
giving so merrily? That is the main
thing for US to think of. That is what
we think of now, in keeping our annual
festival. suppose that is what most of
the sermons over there will be about to-
day, what we have to be thankful for.
And we shall not understand that first
Thanksgiving well unless we enquire
what the Pilgrims had to be thankful
for, so soon after setting foot ION the wild
New England shore" You wonder
what should have set them upon their
glad feasting. And well we may won
der, reading the sad story of that first
year of toll and trial. We cannot forget
how they were exiles from the homes
and the land they loved; and we do not
easily see how that could make them
glad and grateful. We cannot forget
how poor they were; too poor to pay for
the ship they sailed in. And we do not
easily see how their poverty was thing
to be glad and grateful for. We cannot
forget what disappointments they had
had, and what hard work the year had
been filled with, building their rude log
cabins and breaking up the stony soil of
the Plymouth hills. Such WEAKNESS
they had never known before. And we
do not easily see how so much exhaust
ing toll was a thing to be glad and
thankful for. We cannot forget how
they had shivered and sighed in the
wintry winds, and been haunted all the
year through with the fear of savage
men, and those do not seem to us things
to be very glad and thankful for. We
cannot forget how their little ship had
sailed away and left them there in the
wilderness, alone, with no way of getting
back to friends and home if any disaster
should come. And it does not clearly
appear how that loneliness and helpless
ness could make them glad and grateful.
And then we cannot forget what sor-
row upon sorrow had fallen upon them,
sickness and death all the winter long;
scarcely a household that was not in
mourning; half of the whole Pilgrim
band laid away under the SHOWS and the
sod of Burial Hill. How could they be
be glad and grateful, you wonder, think
ing of their beloved dead? Tnanksgiv-
ing, and so many vacant places
Thanksgiving, and the old arm chair
empty Thanksgiving, and the mother
gone! Thanksgiving, and the darlings
dead! Thanksgiving, and all the heart
strings torn and bleeding! Was it pos
sible? But they did keep it. And they
might. For over their beloved dead
they had sung sweet songs of faith and
hope and triumph. Over the loved and
lost they had gone, saying: Blessed
are the dead that die in the Lord"
And Joy had come out of their sorrow;
and heaven had come into their hearts;
and God had come to be more than ever
their exceeding great reward. And
when you think of it so, you do not
wonder they went, saying: cob, that
men would praise the Lord for his good
ness and for his wonderful works to the
children of men," Out of their very
want and WEAKNESS, and the loss of
their best beloved, no doubt, they came
up to grander faith and gladder hope.
And for that deliverance they may well
have kept long and glad Thanksgiving.
And SO may you and L to-day, beloved,
though the year may have had its trials
and its tears. Tired with toll, are We?
And torn with travail of soul? But we
need not go gloomily. Still we may
sing, with Phoebe Cary:
i" Oh feet, grown weary as yewalk,
Where down life's hill my pathway lies,
What care l, while my soul can mount,
AS the young eagle mounts the skies?
Oh eyes. with weeping faded out,
What matters it how dim We be?
Nv inner vision. sweeps, untired,
The reaches Of eternity"