The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-11-30
THANKSGIVING DAY.

THANKSGIVING DAY.
This year Thanksgiving day is late,
the last day of the month. This brings
it pretty close to Christmas, and it
would be we'll if Americans everywhere
on the farms and in the towns would
determine to make months holiday
of it. This does not mean at all that
the month should be given over to
idleness and dissipation, but we might
we'll give it over to helpfulness and
happiness.
Americans take life too seriously,
both in its lighter aspects and its more
serious occupations. We are eager,
earnest and ambitious. We dislike to
be passed by our neighbors and old
friends. We refuse to step aside in
the race for wealth and position even
to rest for awhile under the shade of
the trees or to enjoy ourselves quietly
and serenely by our own fireside.
And so, before we know it, the
meridian of life is passed. We have
rid ourselves perhaps of that anxiety
and uncertainty which haunted us
when we were young, but we are as
anxious now for our children as we
used to be for ourselves SO to most OF
us there is no resting place, no serenity,
no quiet happiness. We look back
and think of the past as a time of
pleasure we look forward and think
of the future as a time for rest, and
the result is that in the present we
neither have pleasure nor peace
And it will always be so. five are
going to wait for time of life and
for certain days and seasons to come
before we can enjoy life, we will never
enjoy it. We must get what comfor
and satisfaction we can out of the
daily labors. One is surprised as he
looks back with pleasure and regre
over periods passed in fear anc
anxiety, and some years hence we will
look back to this year of 1893, for
getting all the difficulties that harassec
US, all the disappointments that bese
US, and we will remember only wha
was pleasant and regret it.
This then is our Thanksgiving
sermon. 1t will be read on Thanks
giving day, in many homes. Be
cheerful, be Contented, take a share
of comfort and satsfac ton from eacl
day as it passes; do not cloud tht
lives of your wives and children by
Ceaselessly pining; "take no though
for the morrow Most of the trouble
in life comes from anticipated danger
that never become realities. Coo
meant for men to be happy in thi
world, and they make themselve:
miserable and with sigh declare tina
they submit to Gods will.
Thanksgiving day is harvest feast
The husbandman who went forth tc
SOW many months ago returns nov
with his arms laden from the harvest
1t is not all that he hoped for. Thu
rains did not come as he planned
the warmth of the sun did not ripper
the fruit. The frost curtailed his re
ward and yet there is sweetness an(
delight in what remains.
This has been year Of stress ant
storm to men and women who liv,
and labor in the great cities. 1t ha
not been altogether a year of success
with the farmers, and yet they hav
been freer from that Corroding car
which has driven SO many men t,
despair.
And SO beginning on Thanksgiving
day let US have full month of holida
happiness, rejoicing over the bountie
of Providence carrying us on througI
the rejoicing because of the birth Of =;
little child in Bethlehem nearly 19ot
years ago.-Home and Farm.