Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1896-11-27
NOBLE SEN TIM EN- IT'S
CLoTHEDIN ELOoUENCE.

Sermon Preached by Rev w. F.
Jones on Sunday Last.
1t is a good thing to give thanks unto
the Lord-Psalms, 92: /.
Gratitude is a primary instinct of un-
perverted human nature. In view Of
great and manifold blessings, the human
heart finds natural expression i'll the
voice of praise and alteration. Thanks
giving is the instructive answer of the
recipient TO the bestower, the grateful,
tilial instinct of man responding III
words to the Fatherly goodness of God.
Dwellers in Christian lands, with prac-
tical unanimity, consent TO the declara-
ton of the Psalmist. The designation
by the Chief Magistrate of our nation,
and by the Governors Of our common
wealths, of one day as the Nations An
nual Thanksgiving Day is happy usage
and one most becoming. Gods good
ness in the great and manifest interposi-
tions which mark our history is con-
slant challenge upon our gratitude and
thanksgiving Ours is by way of pre-
eminence a God-ordained, God-nur-
tured, od-preserved nation. Nation
al gratitude and national thanksgiving
should well up spontaneously at such a
time as this. What nobler, more in
spring spectacle can be conceived than
of great nation making public ac-
acknowledgement of the manifold mercies
of God?
Looking back from the vantage ground
of today, we can see innumerable causes
for thanksgiving. 1t must lie in all our
minds that our nation has just passed
through the heated period of a president
ial election for the twenty eighth time
without disaster, without recourse, as
in so many other republics, TO sword
and bayonet. OF this John Bright said
in the past, "every four years there
springs from the vote created by the
whole people President over the United
States. l think the world offers no
hlCi SDCCldSlC ~ OliCAS hC
higher dignity. If there be on earth
among men any divine right to govern,
surely it rests with the ruler so chosen
and so appointed" How grateful we
ought to be at this time the crisis of the
past few months was passed without
riots and revolution, and that the whole
people so quietly accepted the decision
Of the ballots. Few things more manly
and noble were ever penned than Bryan S
message to Mckinley after the election,
1--WE have submitted the issues to the
people, and their will is law"
Looking at our nations past, Gods
hand so often appears as to make him
seem blind who cannot discern that
God has been silent partner in this
nations history. In the formation and
placing Of this continent, Gods hand is
evident, in anticipation, creating a fit
theater for the outworking Of His grand
designs for the good of mankind and the
promotion Of His own glorious kingdom
of righteousness. In advance, God
stocked our land with every gift need
full for the upbuilding of great civili-
zation. We, as Americans, may well
appropriate the words of Tennyson,
"the good God seems TO have taxed
Himself to see how much happiness He
could crowd into one star"
Yet not alone, or chiefly, does the
good fortune of this favored land appear
in its climatic and material riches, but
rather in the quality of its founders.
The Pilgrim Fathers were picked men
i'll an age notable for men large of mind
and great of heart. They were the
best blood of the mastery Anglo Saxon
race, men of heroic breed, of lofty faith,
men who had been tempered by the fires
of persecution into Christian fortitude.
who only bent the knee to God.
Then, again, we remember with graf
itude the ideals Of our nations founders,
than which none nobler have ever been
conceived, ideals which have been con-
structive potencies in the uprearing of
our national edifice. Their supreme
ambition was the deeply religious desire
10 make the new world "true city of
God" Coupled with this was the wish
to so organize liberty that America
should become the worlds educator in
free institutions. The watchwords EN-.
blazoned upon the banners of the new
republic were religion, liberty, and in.
telligence.
Even Franklin, who is not commonly
credited with being an orthodox Christ.
ian, was greatly impressed with the
evidences of Gods interpretations in be-
half of the Colonies during the war OF
the Revolution, as witness his speech
before the Constitutional Convention
advocating the opening of its sessions
with prayer. So also did Washington
make grateful acknowledgment of the
divine aid, in his address to his soldiers