The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-11-11

| fine bodies are taken, and all the grand
work is taken. There is nothing left for
me-" Aud some one replied, "Ahl the best
one has been left for you" Ulysses said
whats thatS" And the reply was, THE
body of a common man, doing a common
work and for a common reward" A good
fable for the world and just rs good fable
for the church.
But, / remark again, we ought to bring
the religion of Jesus Christ into our or
binary blessings. Every autumn the pres-
dent of the United States and the governors
make proclamation, and we are called to-
gether in our churches to give thanks to
God for his goodness. But every day ought
to be a thanksgiving 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 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 eyesight. We must see
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 coatsleeve pinned up,
| DtlOIt We lttiIll W nav a. BIhilh thihe ~ IL W
have the use of all our physical faculties.
In other words, we are so stupid that moth
ing but the misfortunes of others can wake
us up to an appreciation of our 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 excitement and call
our friends around us, and they congratu-
late u.s. 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 80 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 thank
full 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.
Obi these common mercies, these com
mon blessings, how little we appreciate
them and how soon we forget theml Like
the OK grazing, with the clover up to its
eyes, like the bird picking 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 animalculB
in the sod to the seraph on the throne.
Thanksgiving on the eth of November in
the autumn of the year, but blessings hour
by hour and day by day and no thanks at
all
compared our indifference to the brute,
but perhaps wronged the brute. 1 do not
know but that among it's other instincts il
may have an instinct by which it recog
nizes the Divine hand that feeds it. do
not know but that God is through it hold
ing communication with what we call sir
rational creation" The COW that stands
under the willow by the water course chew
ing her cud looks very thankful, and who
can tell how much bird means by it's
songY The aroma of the flowers smells like
incense, and the mist arising from the river
looks like the smoke of a morning sacri-
flee Oh, that we were as responsive!
If you We're thirsty and asked me for
drink and gave you this glass of water,
your common instinct would reply, THANK
you" And yet how many chalices of mer-
cy we get hour by hour from the hand of
the Lord, our Father and our King, and we
do not even 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 well, foaming in
the cascade, laughing over the rocks, pat
tering 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 sun
beams, the path of sound, the great fan on
hot summer day2 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 roll
ing through arteries and veins, this drum
ming of the heart on the march of immor-
tality?
convict myself and | convict every one
of you while | say these things-that we are
unapprecative of the common merces of
life. And yet if they were Withdrawn the
heavens would withhold their rain, and The
earth would crack open under our feet, and
famine and desolation and sickness and
woe would stalk across the earth, and the
whole earth would become "A place of
skulls.
Oh, my friends, let us wake up to an ap-
probation of the common mercies of life!
Let every day be a Sabbath, every meal a
sacrament, every room a holy of holes.
We all have burdens to bear Let us cheer
fully bear them. We all have battles to
fight Let us courageously fight them.
If we want TO do right, we must live
right. You go home and attend to your
little sphere of duties. | will 20 home and
attend to my little sphere of duties. You
cannot do my work; | cannot do your work
Negligence and Incidence will win the hiss
of everlasting scorn, while faithfulness
will gather it's garlands and wave its sccp-
ter and sit upon its throne long after earth
has put ON ashes and eternal ages have be-
gun their march.