The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-11-26


This Nation--Our Moral Advances
ment is Not Commensurate with
Our Material Growth - sober
Thoughts Suggested by Thanks
giving.
AtAll Souls Universalists church last
Sunday the pastor, Rev. f, w. Whip
pen, preached a very interesting
Thanksgiving Day sermon. Among
other things, he said:
The days Of the Pilgrims were days of
small things The town of Plymouth on
the first Thanksgiving Day numbered
only a dozen houses of the rudest kind,
Lighthouses, neither roomy nor conven-
lent but in the souls of the people
burned brightly the fire of purpose and
trust and hope, and that fire was inde-
pendent of all outward things.
Some of the Pilgrims at any rate had
visions of what their settlement would
become. Brewster was moved to proph-
esy:
blessed will It be for us, blessed for
this land, for this vast continent Nay,
from generation to generation will the
blessing disCcnd Generations to come
shall look back to this hour and these
scenes of agonizing trial, this day of
small things, and say: Those were our
beginnings as a people These were our
fathers. Through their trials we inherit
our blessings"
Prophet and seer as he was we know
that William Brewster could not begin
to conceive the material greatness and
strength of this nation he helped to
found. Could he have been told in his
day of the developments which $50 years
would bring, he must have doubted it,.
Could he be introduced today to the
cities, the enterprises, the commerce and
the achievements of our generation, he
must sink down in amazement before it
all. We are amazed ourselves sometimes
as we realize the full tide of our mater
| ial growth and we know that we have
| cause to glory in the great achievements
! of our time.
And yet it is not to our material pros
| pcrity that our thoughts are most nat
| urRlly led as we think of the Pilgrims
| of Plymouth.
William Brewster might be amazed at
| our achievements but his amazement.
| am confident, would soon give place to
other feelings and feelings would yield
| to serious thoughts. He would not be
blinded by our material greatness. Most
! likely he would ask questions which be-
fore his searching gaze we should find
it exceedingly embarrassing to answer.
THE SIMPLE TRUTH.
| The simple truth is our moral ad-
| vanCement Is not commcnsurat to with our
! material We may as well face the fact
| Thanksgiving is a national festival. 1t is
| appointed by the president and in turn
| by the governors of the various states
| after the time-honored custom in NOM
inal recognition of Gods favor and
| bounty. That God is good there is no
| doubt. That we have from Him, through
| the faithfulness of the fathers a glOr-
| ious inheritance, there is no doubt. There
| is room for Thanksgiving and yet in
| volvcd with our thanks must be rcCog.
milton of our national sins. God has done
| well. The burning question is, have We
| in our place done well? Are we doing
| well today? Providence abOunds in com
| pcnsatons. The Pilgrims had nothing
| and we, ii seems, have everything, bu
If all the material resources of today TO-
getaer with our average spirituality
| We're put into our scale. and the mag
nilicent mighty spirit of the Pilgrim
fathers We're put into the others tn,
beam would go down upon the side o
the Pilgrims as if weighted by the haut
of the infinite.
| do not mean to say that We have M
earnest heaven inspired souls; but ou1
national spirit is woCfully below the spir
it of the Pilgrims. 1t is not surprsnl
that 1t is so, considering how our pop
ulatiOn is made up and the sources from
! whence it has come. still the fact Is NJ
less a fact and 1t calls for the earnest
prayerful attention Of us all.
Were the Pilgrim fathers our visitors
today we should take great pride il
showing them our machinery and GU
mills but how would it be with tn,
pinched pale faces of children and youth
harnessed to that machinery and shu
up in those mills with a confinement al
most as vigorous as that of prisons
How would it be with the thousands o
children on the streets of the great citie
learning mostly the bad because n,
school accommodations are provided TO
them? The people for the most part ar
housed magniiicently and they liv
sumptuously every day, but the children
of the republic in cases not few, eithe
from indifference or Carelessness or greed
are denied the privileges of mental train
ing, We cannot, of course, overlool
what the public schools are, and wha
they are doing. Indeed, we may claim
with truth on our side, that the rul
throughout the land is education for ou
boys and girls, and were our short-com
ings as regards school accommodation
the only blot upon our banner, we might
with some courage, hold up our head
before the Pilgrims.
But as we walked through the street
Of our cities with brewster and Brad
ford, our business streets, and showc
them a certain business that is SO thirty
ing ana So plentiful, as they saw with
oVt our showing, the staggering and tn
swagg, ring and the id.OCy of men VIII
had been giving their patronage at thos
stands, what should we say? Sometime
We should have TO say; "The law pre-
tcctS these, They are licensed saloons
In the eyes of the state rum selling
'"s' as respectable as -four or mea
selling"
LAUGH At TIE LAW