River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-11-19
GIVING THANKS.
Few Lots IN Life Where Some One Causo
for TIL anifulnes. May Not BE Found.

Few Lots IN Life Where some One Causo
for Thtnkfulness May Not BE Found.
There are some people with whom it
is always Thank giving day. No trouble
can befall them; grief rolls away from
them as their tears do; The fountain
ever freshly bubbles up from within, of
gladness, of rejoicing, oi tanks. And
there are others 20 whom the mere
thought of giving thanks brings the
very opposite of thanks, with doubts
and questions and negations, and who
feel in their Utmost hearts that they
have very little TO give thanks for.
They are of the class who think happi-
ness is a species of natural inheritance,
and every deprivation of the happiness
they want. or infringement upon the
happiness they have, is an overt wrong
done themselves. concerning which
they should cherish Indignation, and
for which they have a right to demand
the reason.
Yet il seems as if there might be few
lots in life where some one cause for
thankfulneSs might not be found. Were
one the beggar that begged his bitter
bread from street to street. yet one
might be thankful for the strength that
allowed the going. Were one enduring
direst pain, vet the noble soul within
might find power to rejoice that there
were others who were free from pain,
and, living up to the law o self-forget-
fulness, give thanks for that
Ii is not that we are called upon to
give thanks for our troubles, although
the poet of the might Thoughts" said
the greatest thing he had to be thank
full for was that his heart had bled; but
il is true that we are To look beyond
our troubles and still find cause for
gratitude. If we are forbidden what
we wish the most, we are glad surely
that we are capable of wishing, that
there is always the goal beyond,
whether wise or foolish. great or petty,
TO which we have the joy of aspiring,
for aspiring in any shape is always a
Joy. And if we are called upon to
mourn the irretrievable. at least we
can be thankful that we are not in dry
eyed despair, but have the power to
mourn.
Indeed it is even when the heart is
sorest, grief the bitterest. loss the most
extreme, that the giving of thanks
brings relief to the spirit like that of
rain To the thirsty earth. Togive thanks
to Heaven that we have had the lost to
love, that they are ours. since we love
them still, and we cannot love what is
not: To give thanks that they ever ex-
listed. that we knew them and had %
do with them; that We had pride and
joy in them-to do this is to put our
selves into such close connection and
conversation with the All-giving power
as to receive new JOY almost as
precious rs the old. 1t is like the
breaking of sacramental bread still
with the beloved: it is sharing with
Heaven still their possession; il 'is lift
ing the whole being to the spiritual
plane where the beloved are; it is.
without meaning it, without knowing
it, saying: Thy will be done;" it is
entering into the close intimacy of that
power dark with excessive brightness;
it makes Heavenly joys real and all but
renews and revivifies the earthly.
In order 10 offer thanks like these
the common and outward forms of the
Thanksgiving festival are not essential,
but neither are they inconsistent with
obedience To those forms. Meantime
the fact that they are felt will give one
strength to go through all the merry
making and festivity of the days OBJ
servances and help one in the work of
making ready for it and sharing in it
And if the afflicted and broken. hearted
can give thanks how sorry and sad
would it be if the rest of us, out of con-
tented spirits, happy homes, comfort
able incomes. sound health and smiling
fortune. could not lift our voices in a
pecan and give to the feebler tones of
the chorus all the surplus of our own
strength of thanksgiving. - Harper's
Isayur