The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-26
IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCHES.
Impressive Services at st. Johns.
Large Congregation at st. PauPs.

Impressive Services at st. Johns.
Large Congregation at st. PauPs.
Services were held in all the Episcopal
churches. At st. Johns they were con-
Quoted by the rector Rev. Charles H.
Strong. Like those of the other churches
they were in accordance with the ritual
for the observance of the day. An inter-
esting sermon was preached by Mr. Strong
from the text, the fourth and fifth verses
of the One Hundredth psalm:
Enter into His gates with
thanksgiving, and into His courts
with praise; give thanks unto Him and
bless His name. For the Lord is good; His
mercy endureth forever; and His faithful
ness unto all generations"
"a day of Thanksgiving" said Mr.
Strong, lis time for the review of the
years blessings. Since twelve months ago,
when we stood here in our house of wor-
ship, another cycle of our life history has
rolled away, bringing the various re-
verses, as well as the manifold gifts, of
God leaving behind a character, richer or
poorer, from this section of our experience.
AS we turn our faces back over the past
twelve months, we are impressed with the
steady and easy movement of life. Ma
tons abroad have heaved with the excite
ment of war; mems passions have been
aroused; the selishnesS of governments
falsely called the craftsmanship of ma
tons, has moved up and down over other
lands; men of almost the same nationali-
ties are to-day, in the snowy passes of
Bulgaria, locked in the deadly embrace of
a fractricidal war Fatal epidemics have
scourged other countries as sunny and fair
as this of ours. Poverty, in grimmer
forms, has oppressed the thousands of the
earth. But our country has moved with
little friction over the even tenor of it's
way. War to the younger men is almost an
unknown and unrealizable fact.
81 am appalled, every year when this
festival comes" said Mr.. Strong, "to think
that l may be compelled to catalogue the
blessings of God. Let man try it-with
a memory as keen and an eloquence as
great as that of Macauley-to make list
of Gods gifts for one single day. Let him
begin in the early dawn at the moment
of opening consciousness. He awalSes
from a restful sleep, body and mind alert
with the new stores of health; out of his
window, over the broad universe, let him
think where multitudes of human beings
have passed the night; on doorsteps and
in cutters, in fields canopied only by the
sky. in caves and dens, on battle-felds
and in the hospitals of dying, down in
gloomy mines, in huts penetrated by the
cold in dens of sin and haunts of vice,
in pain and anguish what a host of shiv-
ering, suffering, tossing, dying creatures,
moaning, shrieking, cursing, swearing,
praying, while he lay sheltered under the
roof OF home. He arises with a prayer,
and his children, like himself preserved
through the perils of the night. come round
him with their morning benedicHon,
breathing their purity out of innocent
faces, rudy with health. romping, rush
ing, tumbling about, well-clothed, we'll
hammered, untouched by disease, unknow-
ing evil, ignorant of care, full of expec-
tation and promise; where are the other
members of this simple circle of childhood?
Rising, it may be- from the barren rock
or the hard floor, pinched in face, SILVER
ing in their rags, picking up their bas-
kets and buckets to go forth in the early
dawn while the gay world sleeps to gath
err their breakfast from the lanes, where
the rich man has thrown his crumbs;
huddled together in factories, tolling,
steaming, oily, greasy, living in the midst
Of cursing and blasphemy, driven, beaten,
like the dogs that meet them on the
street.
IT cannot accept the explanation that
the one man deserves and the other has
forfeited the blessing of God. No man
knows better than / the divine laws of
work and industry and the rewards OF hon
est toll. But no such partial explanation
will account for the discrepancies Of life.