The Newtown bee., 1895-12-13

LniD& &S are p0eelDlo W1en aO0s to appeal to chat which is noble in men and not spend eur time in condemning that which is bad. Ibelieve in that doctrine; chat Is prominent part of my creed. l shall never give sOuiup until God givos that soul up, and I do not know when that will be. But, while hold that 1t is right to make every allowance to omen for the good that may be in them, can make no allowance to any man who never finds any occasion for expressing his thanksgiving to God. If one believes in God at all, he will find some method of making known that belief If one feels any gratitude to God at all, he will hit upon some way of showing forth that gratitude. All your children are not alike ;aheir dispositions are very different; some are much more demOnstrative than others: but, If any one of your children ne yer in any way expresses to you his thankfulness for the kindness with which you are constantly treating him. you cannot overlook his ingratitude. And SO, if one of Gods children, especially at time like Thanksgiving set apart for ex- pression of gratitude, finds no means of letting his gratitude to God be known, are we not to conclude that this one Is not Gods child? Utter disregard of Gods mercies on the part of any Ot Ills children is
 AN INSULT OFFERED TO GOD;
 utter lack of feelings of praise or expres- sion of praise is an affront to kind and bounLiful Father for which there is no pardon.
 Praise ye the Lord.n In the other verse Ihave quoted che Psalmist suggests one reason tor praise-we should praise God for His goodness. I want to call for bit of testimony. You have come to this recurring anniversary. Thanks giving is thoughtgiving (etymologists tell U, that the two words, Tn root mean. Go back over the year that has flown !; look it over carefully think of the partic. ular days. What rush of memories comes to us! What train of reflections is started! At the close of letter 1t is customary to write some phrase which briefly sums up our thought; taking this last year to be a letter which you will now file away, what thought will you write at it's close? Could any thought be better than the simple words of the Psalmist: 70 Lord, Thou art good"?
 This, I take it, is your testimony. You have made mistakes-many they have been-bu5 you would not think of blam- ing God for them. You have not lived up uO yOut OPPO1VunAtCb9 Oub 0ON A6S had nothing to do with that. You meant to do many things, they gre still undone !; the year was one thing in prospect, it is quite another in retrospect; somehow me landscape which you saw from the hilltop year ago was not exactly like the landscape that you are looking back upon to-day but you blame God.for none of these fhings. Perhaps have been especially favored by the class of people among whom have lived; but 1 have yet to hear any One put the responsibil- ity upon God for that which he has not achieved. Ihave heard men from whom their entire fortune had been swept away say, "God has been very good to me. ; 1 have heard men. who, like Abraham, were called upon to climb some Mount Moriah and there sacrifice the dearest object of their affection, still say, ssGod has brought me very close to Him through this aff1icti0n." Do you recall that servant of God whose property was snatched away as gust of wind would snatch a feather from your hand, whose family was taken by the robber Death as robber would take treasured things out of your home, and who was himself left poor, with some
 VERY QUESTIONABLE FRIENDS
 about him, and his body broken out with sores; and yet this servant exclaimed when his friends said that his affiictions were Gods punishment for his sins Though He slay me, yet will trust in Him." Yes, at this Thanksgiving season 1 am not going to stop to count up my lacks, for the sense of Gods goodness in all the affairs of my life overwhelms me.
 Praise ye the Lord.'' For what are we to praise Him? Shall we count up &k, ~A .s<.. Shall we reckon the shining pearls of our successes? Shall we praise God only for bank-notee, stocks, bonds, head of cattle and bushels of corn? To show that such is not what the text means, at least with regard to time of thanksRiv- ing, let us go back to the institution of our Thanksgiving day. A look into his- tory may polish up the rusty knowledge of school-books and do us all good. The festival, as you know, was instituted by the Pilgrims. and, because it means 80 much to us, we wish to see how much 1t meant to them. It was, indeed, ia stern and rock-b01nd coast" on which they landed, rough soil from which to wrest a livelihood; but in this rough soil the germs of religion and liberty were sown, and they have blOssOmed into the fairest growths ever seen by man. Truly as .sstrangers and pilgrims'' our forefathers came to these shores; an fnhospitable land received them. Soon their scanty atores were spent and many wanted bread. In the spring of 1923 they sowed their corn. All went right until the third week in May and then ecorching drought set in; till the middle of July seven weary weeks-no rain fell. The flood gates of the sky were closed; the earth became dry as dust; the harvest dropped and, where there was the auspice of an abundant 5ield, there came the i'll omens of swift decay. Gaunt famine stalked before the Pilgrims, and pointed at them with skeleton fingers, and mock, ingly held in their faces the warning hour-glass of death. The Indians proph-' esied famine for the cOlOnists and q consequent easy victory over them. In this extremity public fast was observ ed with great solemnity the first volun- tary fast ever held on this continent. The morning of the fast day
 BROKE CLEAR AND CLoUDLEss,
 as the other days had been. The sun's from ical smiles seemed to tannt the Pil- grims' tears the alr was close and hot, and yet their fervOr and faith re mained unabated. For nine long hours they prayed, and then cloud ap- peared upon the horizon, at first no big ger than a mans hand and then thH storm clouds grew thicker until their heavy pail o'erspread the sky and the long sought rain drops began to fall. The dropping harvests revived, the withered and shriveled stalks began to and the san smitten wild flowers opened their cups for the re- freshing rain. Alter ths harvest st0res had been gathered, Governor William Bradford Wt10 from 1Rl1 t0 16k9 waa almost contiDuously in tho magisferial chair, sentra company of the colonists his Indians mingiing with them in theirl They thanked God for the 1 good world and the gond thaf was In it. l Th :, tI.o r.{,.ssa R,,sff me 6nvs4 fl.n4 .n<