The Globe-republican., 1893-09-08

you?" 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 10 such insignificant min
istry as that, tell you God Is willing
to bend down to your case. since he is
just as careful about the construction
of . spiders eye as he is in the confor-
nation Of flaming galaxieA
Plato had fable which have now
nearly forgotten, but 1t ran something
like this: He said spirits of the other
world came back to this world to find
body and find sphere of work. One
spirit came and took the body of
king, and did his work Another spirit
came and took the body of a 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: "Ah!
the best one has been left for you"
Ulysses said: whats that?' And the
man. doing a common work, and for
common reward" A good fable for
the world, and just as good fable for
the Church.
But l 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 procla nation, and
we are called together in our churches
% hnv I'll % 90. Ia
But every day ought to be thanks
giving day. We take most of the
blessings of life as a matter of course.
We have had 10000 blessings this morn
ing. Before the night comes we will
have a thousand more blessings you
will never think of mentioning before
God.
We must see blind man led along
by his dog before we learn what
grand thing it is to have ones eye
sight. We must see a man with ST.
Vitus' dance before we learn what
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. before 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 misfort-
unes of others can wake Us up to an
appreciation of cur common blessings
We get on board a train and start for
Boston. and come to Norwalk bridge.
and the draw is Off, and crash. goes
the train. Fifty lives dashed 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 fifty people lose their
lives and you get off, than you are
grateful to God when you all get off,
and you have no alarm at all. Now
you ought to be thankful when you
escape from accident, but more thank
full when they all escape. In the one
case your gratitude is somewhat selfish;
in the other it is more ike what it
ought to be.
Oh! these common mercies, these
common blessings, how little we APP
preciate them and how soon we forget
them. Like the OK grazing, with the
clover up to his 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 animalcula in
the sod to the seraph on the throne.
Thanksgiving on the 2.th of November
in the autumn of the year; but bless,
ings, hour by hour and day by day. and
no thanks at all l compared our in
difference to the brute, but perhaps
wronged the brute. l do not
know but that, among its other
instincts, it may have an instinct by
which it recognizes the divine hand
that feds it. l do not know but that
God is, through it, holding communica-
ton with what we call irrational crea-
ton" The cow that stands under the
WILLOW Us Tic "dlcT-COuTSc. CiieN Wig
its cud, looks very thankful: and who
can tell how much bird means by its
song? The aroma of the flowers smells |
like incense. and the mist arising from
the river looks like the smoke of |
morning sacrifice. Oh. that we were as
Who thinks Of thanking God for the
water gushing up in the well. foaming |
in the cascade, laughing over the rocks,
in the shower. clapping 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 a hot summer
day? Who thinks to thank God for
this wonderful physical organism. this
sweep of vision. this chime OF harmony
struck into the ear, this crimson tide |
rolling through arteries and veins this |
of the heart on the march |
of Immortality?
convict myself. and convict every
one of you. while l say these things,
that we are unappreciative of the COM
mon mercies of life. and yet il they