Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-10-07

cheek Of that violet" And then see
pulleys at work In the sky, and the
clouds are drawing water, and I say,
| What are you doing there, O clouds:"
They say, ''We are drawing water for
that violet" And then look down in
to the grass, and say, 'Can it be that
God takes care of poor thing like
your" and the answer comes up, 'Yes,
yes; God clothes the grass OF the field,
and he has never forgotten me, . poor
violet" Oh, my friends, if the
heavens bend down to such Insignificant
ministry as that, ! tell you God is will
is just as careful about the construc-
ton OF spiders eye as he is in the
conformation of flaming galaxies.
! Fable from Plato.
Plato had fable which 1 have now
nearly forgotten, but it ran something
like this: He said spirits of the other
world came back to this world to find q
body and find q sphere of work. One
king and did his work. Another spirit
came and took the body of poet and
did his work. After awhile ULYSSES
came, and he said: ''Why, all the fine
bodies are taken, and all the grand
work is taken. There is nothing left
for me-" And some one replied, sAh |!
the best one has been left for you."
Ulysses said, whats that" And the
reply was, 1.-THE body of a common
man, doing common work, and for a
common reward" A good fable for
the world and just as good fable for the
church.
But, I remark again, we ought to
! bring the religion OF Jesus Christ into
our ordinary blessings. Every autumn
the President of the United States and
| the Governors make proclamation, and
we are called together in our churches
to give thanks to God for His goodness.
But every day ought to be a thanks
giving day. We take most of the
blessings Of life as matter of course.
| We have had ten thousand blessings
this morning for which we have not
thanked God. Before night comes. we
| will have thousand more blessings
you will never think of mentioning be-
| fore God.
We must see blind man led along
| by his dog before we learn W hat grand
| thing it is to have ones eyesight. We
must see man with St. Vitus' dance
before we learn what u grand thing it
is to have the use OF our physical
energies. We must see some soldier
crippled limping along on his crutch,
or his empty coat sleeve pinned up, be-
fore we learn what grand thing it is
to have the use of all our physical
faculties. In other words, we are SO
stupid that nothing but the misfor-
tunes OF others can wake us up to an
appreciation of our common blessings.
| We get on board Of a train and start
for Boston and come to NOrwalk bridge,
and the ''draw" is off, and crash! goes
the train. Fifty lives flashed out. We
escape. We come home in great ex-
element and call our friends around
us, and they congratulate us, and we
all kneel down and thank God for our
escape while SO many persisted. But
tomorrow morning you get on train
of cars for Boston. You cross that
bridge at Norwalk. You cross all the
other bridges. You get to Boston in
safety. Then you return home. Not
an accident, not an alarm. No thanks.
| In other words, you seem to be more
grateful when 50 people lose their
lives and you get off, than you are
grateful to God when you all get of,
and you have no alarm at all. Now you
ought to be thankful when you escape
from accident, but more thankful when
they all escape. In the one case your
| gratitude is somewhat selfish, in the
other it is more like what it ought to
be.
| Oh, these common mercies. these
common blessings, how little we appre
ciate them and how soon we forget
them! Like the OK grazing, with the
clover up to its eyes, like the bird pick
| ing the worm out of the furrow-never
thinking to thank God, who makes the
! grass grow and who gives life to every
living thing, from the animacule in
| the sod to the seraph on the throne,
Thanksgiving on the 9th of Novem-
Der, in the autumn OF the year, but
blessings hour by hour and day by day
and no thanks at all.
l compared our Indifference to the
brute, but perhaps Iwronged the brute.
| do not know but that among it's other
instincts it may have an instinct by
which it recognized the Divine hand
that feeds it. do not know but that
God is through it holding communion
ton with what we call Irrational crea-
ton" The cow that stands under the
willow by the water course chewing
her cud looks very thankful, and who
can tell how much bird means by its
oOAS. AO 0IOIud VI VIC uUWcTS SIuCll
like incense; and the mist arising from
the river looks like the smoke of a
morning sacrifice. Oh, that we were
as responsive!
# you were thirsty and asked me for
drink and gave you this glass of
water, your common instinct would re-
ply, ''Thank you." And yet how many
cnalices of mercy we get hour by hour
from the hand of the Lord, our Father
and our King, and we do noteven think
to say ''Thank you." More just to men
than we are just to God.
Who thinks of thanking God for the
water gushing up in the we'll, foaming
in the cascade, laughing over the
rocks, pattering in the shower, clap
ping its hands in the sea? Who thinks
to thank God for that? Who thinks to
thank God for the air, the fountain of
life, the bridge of sunbeams, the path
of sound, the great fan on hot sum-
mer day? Who thinks to thank God
for this wonderful physical organism,
this sweep of vision, this chime Of