The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1889-12-03
THANKSGIVING.
Praise Services at the Congrega.
tional and Anglican Churches.
Sermons by Rev. Beckwith and Rev.
GOwen.

situated from the landing place of the
Pilgrim Fathers, and although no stern
and rock-bound coast encircles this mid
Pacific home of those who yeperate
their memory, yet the olden service of
praise and thanksgiving was as fully per-
formed in these sunny, coral. wave
washed isles of Hawaii, by all creeds, as
rigidly as if beneath the shadow of Ply
mouth Rock.
Services were held at both the Central
Union Congregational Church and at
the Anglican (St. Andrew's) Cathedral.
A special choral service was arranged in
each church, trained choirs voicing the
various hymnal tunes, Mr.. Myron Jones
being the organist at the Central Union
and Mr.. Wray Taylor officiating in like
capacity at the Anglican Cathedral.
Rev. Z. g. Beckwith preached the SER
mon at the Congregational Church and
Rev. ii. H. Gowen at the Anglican Cath
edral. Following are the sermons:
Sermon at the Central Union Church.
1t came about in quite informal way.
First things are apt to come about little
at haphazard. The first Hawaiian In
dependence Day was not planned for as
a national holiday. 1t came about quite
informally, as the result of those happy
negotiations that forty-six years ago gave
this little Island Kingdom its guaranty
OF national life. The first battle OF the
American Revolution was not thought
of day before it happened and it was
not fought according to any regular rules
of warfare. Every man for himself,
from behind rail fences and stone walls,
and wherever anybody could get a shot
at the regulars, they fought that first
battle for freedom. Quite informal the
first things are apt to be. So it was with
the first New England Thanksgiving, as
you will see, as 1 go on with my story.
And because they come without any
previous experience, the first things are
likely to be somewhat incomplete. The
first dresses ever made, you know, were
very simple, Just few. fig leaves sewed
together. 1t has taken six thousand
years to learn how to make a modern
gown and bonnet. The first railroad
train ever seen in America looke2 like a
file of Concord stage coaches strung to-
gether. The first organs ever set up in
churches were blown with dozen black
smiths bellows, and were played by
pounding the keys with the fist. Rude
instruments they were, and rude mel
ody they must have rendered. But SO it
is with the first things. And so it was
with the first Thanksgiving. 1t lacked
something of the completeness of our
modern Thanksgiving, with its national
proclamation, and its State proclamation,
and its formal service of prayer, and ser
mon, and song, and its show of the
bounty of harvest and vintage, and its
surfeit of good things at the household
feast Simpler than that, great deal,
was that first New England feast of in
gathering, as you will see, as l 60 on
with my story. So let me tell the story
briefly:
l. 1t was kept in 1921, that first
Thanksgiving. In 1921, less than one
short year after that little
Band of exiles moored their bark
On the wild New England shore"
So quick those sanity souls were to
find something to be thankful for.
>. 1t was kept at Plymouth, that
dear old town where more Thankgivings
have been kept than in any great city in
the land; that shrine OF every true
Americans loyalty, where all the hills
and streams and streets are sacred, and
where the very rocks are stored and
canopied. At Plymouth, where the
Church found its refuge, and humanity
its rights, and liberty its birthplace. At
acknowledgements it, please, all you
boys and girls, for you owe more to that
little town than to any other place in the
world but Bethlehem. Plymouth, out
of whose planting came the free schools,
the free churches, and that free nation. 1t
is the dearest spot in all the home land.
The people ought to loveit as man loves
his birthplace. In that old historic
town, SO tull of holy memories, they
kept the first Thanksgiving.
s. VINO kept it? The Pilgrims.
Everybody knows about the Pilgrims,
those sanity men and women whom
King James.hurried out of England be-
cause they wanted to be Gods free
people," and the King wouldn't let them
but said they should worship God in the
Kings own way or smart for it. And
they would not worship God in the Kings
beCgarly way. And they did not want
to stay and smart for it. So they fed;
fed by night, you remember; lett the
homes they loved, and the land they
loved, and went out among strangers.
So they called them Pilgrims. And in
their pilgrimage they had come to Ply
mouth in the Mayfower, you know, that
brave little bark of which one has well
said: She carried in her freight the
future of the worlds history" Grand
men they were, those Plymouth Pill
grims who kept that first Thanksgiving.
They loved God. They loved liberty.
They did some of the best work that has
ever been done for the world. Some
grand things they gave us, and some
beautiful things. And one of the most
beautiful is this Thanksgiving festival.
The Pilgrims gave it TO US.
4. When they kept that first Thanks
giving. They kept it, as we keep 1t,
after the corn was gathered in. we do
not know the day, but it was probably a
little earlier than we keep it now. IL
was among those wondrous autumn days
some of you remember them), those
beautiful mid-autumn days when the
still air is warm and slumbrous, with a
half-blue, half-golden haze that makes
you think the summer is coming back
again; those inimitably lovely days q
IL ~rw