Connecticut western news., 1893-12-07
THANKSGIVING ADDRESS
Delivered by the Rev F. w. Barnett in Christ Church, Canaan, Conn, Nov 30, 1893.

I to close. Another harvest IS past, the Summer Is ended; the green fields and Autumn foliage have left us and we have now come to that closing portion of the year which is called by one of our poets the Twilight of the year.
 The twilight of the year has come,
 The hour to pause and ponder
 | And gathering round the board we ask
 Gods blessing. and give Praise and Thanks. | It is time for taking inventory of what the passing year has brought us. As we balance up the account of it's profits and losses. it's joys and sorrows, I trust we may each of us find many | things to be thankful for. Don't let us borrow troubles on Thanksgiving Day. The blessings of this life are far more iu mum Der than its troubles. It is esti- mated that in the average human life there are about .'ten blessings to one trial, we have many days of health to one of sickness, we have hundreds of friends to one enemy, we have multi tude of cheering and encouraging words to one of islander or unkindly criticism, we have thousand sunbeams to one rain storm"
 There are some people who, because they cannot have some one good thing which they coveted, let the disappoiDt- ment of it sour the enjoyment of the other blessings which they do have. I suppose we all know the Scripture recipe for sweetening the sour grapes of this life. It is contentment -i'Be con- tent with such things as ye have" 'I have learned" said the Apostle Paul, ''in whatsoever state am herewith to be content" It is wonderful what a l sweetening effect such disposition has on our bunch of sour grapes. It makes us thankful for such blessings as we have; and instead of looking askance at our neighbors, we are glad that kind Providence has blessed and prospered them also.
 But Thanksgiving day is national festival. We are called almost to for get our personal concerns in the wider thought of Gods blessing on the coun- try at large The President in his proc lamation speaks especially of this s'The Divine goodness and mercy have followed the people of these United States ever since their beginning as Nation" It is true that there is de- pression in business at the present time; many men are out of employment and some families will have to butter their bread pretty thin this coming winter, yet as whole God has prospered the nation. As we think-it is the wealth. fest and most favored country in the world. On Thanksgiving day it is we'll | to remind ourselves where the source of | this prosperity lies. 1t Is not in the land but in the people who occupy it. Its source is not in its fertile valleys and rich mines and extensive coal beds. The | North American Indians possessed these broad acres long before we did and yet the land never yielded it's wealth 10 them. Iu hunting their game they were stepping over mines of gold and silver and riding over rich prarie | lands, the resources of which they had I no conception of Whole tribes of h. ! dians died of starvation in the midst of abundance because they had not the knowledge how to make the earth yield it's increase for the comfort and l convenience of man. What is it then that marks the difference between the condition of this country to-day and what it was 400 years ago when Colum- bus discovered lt2 It is all expressed by that single word, Civilization. It is religion. culture, education, agricul- ture and all those mechanical and in- dustrlal arts which the great Fair at Chicago the past year has given an ex- hibition of to the whole world.
 Many years ago an Indian chief made an address to the people of his tribe exhorting them to give up their wild pursuit of hunting and take up agricul- ture. He said ''See you not that the pale-faces feed on grains while we feed on flesh? That the game we hunt takes thirty months to grow and is often very scarce? It has four legs to flee from us while we have only two to run after it. But everyone of those wonderful grains which the pale-faces strew into tue earth remains and grows up in the spot where it is planted and yields many hundred fold. No wonder then that they have 30 many children and live longer than we do. Therefore say to you that before the cedars of our village shall have died of age and the naples of the valley have ceased to give us sug- ar the race of the corn-eaters will have destroyed the race of the flesh eaters unless the hunter resolves to exchafige his wild pursuit for that of the husband man." There Was wisdom in this ad- vice of the Indian chief to his tribe and because it was not followed his prophet ic words have been almost literally full filled.
 We have given some reasons personal and patriotic why we should keep Thanksgiving. We might mention also few local reasons. As citizens of the United States we claim share in the whole country, but our particular place of habitation is up here among these hills, and as we think in one of the choicest corners of New England-in good old Canaan with it's pure air aud beautiful scenery and it's pleasant soci- ety of people. Last Summer the es- teemed editor of our local newspaper wrote an article on some of the attrac- finna of Canaan as a nlaca to live in It