The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-11-30

"Old Prob" came as near making
a typical New England Thanksgiving
Day as the proximity to the equator
would allow. The attendance at the
church services and the numerous
dinner parties were features of the day
which did not suffer from the inelem-
ency of the weather.
There was good attendance at st.
Andrews Cathedral at the Thanks
giving service held by the Second
Congregation. The Rev. Alex. Mack
intosh had charge of the service and
the following special music was rem
dered by the choir of ladies and gen.
tlemen: TIE Deum, Dudley Buck, in
B minor; Jubilate, Holden, in G; An
them, ''Ye Shall Dwell in the Land"
by Stainer. Two hymns were also
sung, "We Plough the Fields and
Scatter" and "Rejoice Today With
Elm feste Burg. The solos were taken
by Mrs. Lewis, Miss LAM Atkinson
and Mr.. Ernest Ross. At the conclu-
sion of the service the organist, Wray
Taylor, played Harvest Thanksgiv-
ing March. A collection was taken
up which will be given to the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts.
The sermon was preached by the
Rev. Alex. Macintosh, who took for
his text the ninth verse second chap
ter of Jonah, 'tBut will sacrifice unto
Thee with the voice of thanksgiving:
L will pay that that / have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord"
The preacher said that there is no
| doubt of the fact that human being
is not really grateful to his Creator
| unless he processes and evinces his
gratitude both for favors granted and
for favors or joys withheld. 1t is not
difficult to show our pleasure when we
have obtained cherished wish, but it
is not uncommon to find that the giver
of the pleasure is soon forgotten. Graf
itude is the habit of being pleased
with our fortunes; and when this
appertains to our feelings toward
our God, the author and giver of all
good things, it involves the constant
showing forth of CORE -ponding good
deeds, in acknowledge ut for benefits.
It means that we are as we'll pleased,
that God has withheld certain things
which we esteem blessings as though
He had given them to us in full posses
sion, because our faith in Him tells us
that He withholds them for our good.
To truly grateful heart it must seem
strange that some worthy persons,
some of them teachers Of the Christian
religion, that religion which is synony-
nous with love and gratitude, its
child, have published recently their
thoughts, that it is not consistent with
natural feelings to return thanks to
Almighty God in high festival this
year, because of the great distress so
many have experienced, and because
of the failure of the harvest to
yield it's accustomed increase in cer-
tain places. 1t does not seem to
have struck these persons that their
natural wants can be supplied from
other parts of the earth, that the har-
vests have been more abundant in
other countries, just to equaliZe this
decrease, and that a great deal of the
distress In other ways, than from lack
of food, is owing in great measure to
the indiscretion of sufferers them
selves. Then again, as in other mat
ters, the ancient excuse for ingratl-
| tude has come up again, as II 1t were
a new discovery. That the word
gratitude, and what it expresses is not
| in the Bible, and what is not in that
holy book is not incumbent on man
| to entertain. 1t may be that the
| words grateful and gratitude, like an
| other most important word in our re-
ligion, Trinity, are not to be found in
| the Bible, but like this precious word,
they are exemplified by innumerable
| instances of the words and deeds of
| persons who represent them.
The preacher went on to give illus
trations from the Bible of gratitude,
| which he said was love, and love
shows itself in every kindly and noble
way. II never wearies of praising
the author and giver of our blessings:
But that is not all. 1t is thankful
| and sees good reason to praise God even