The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-11-25
THE DAY OF THANKS.
An Eloquent Tribute to Our National
Holiday.


Today we may not roll out of sight and
uound into the dark of forgotten things
every cause for sadness-the tendrils of
sorrow may entwine themselves too close
ly around the heart for that-but none the
less may we wheel into the foreground
softened by the warming sunshine of these
closing autumn days every cause for re-
joicing and gratitude. Thanksgiving is
prominently the family day. On this day
Of all others there will gather around the
table dear faces that make starlight and
sunlight in the heart, faces, 1t may be the
round and dimpled ones of little children,
faces serried with patience, sweeter yet for
the impress which Gods own sorrow has
laid upon them, faces blooming with
youthful loneliness, faces looking so kind
ly out from their frames of silver hair-and
we need them ALL Happy indeed that
family where the three generations can
gather-the merry children, the happy
parents, the dearly loved, kindly GRANDPA
ther and grandmother. Rut there Is q
touch of strange incompleteness every
where. Few the home circles that are
perfect, from whose sacred Enclosure no
one of tender or venerable years has been re-
moved, from whence no light has gone out.
But we may not dwell upon our sense
of loss as we think of the loved one or low
ed ones who have gone 1t Is our right,
our duty, our solemn joy-and all great
joys are serious-to think of them. And
II but sweet faith come to us with her
ministrations we shall think of the lost
ones not as lost, but only as gone before
us for a little. How little, how short, it
will all seem to look back upon when sur
cease comes to all our sorrow, as 1t has
come to theirs! So let us take heed on
this Thanksgiving day, and If chair
around the Thanksgiving table Is vacant
that was filled last year, If you yearn for
The touch of vanished hand
And the sound Of a voice that is still,
surely you can bring to mind not,only a
realizing sense of the mercies that remain,
but of the joyful meeting that awaits you
where partings are all unknown.
There Is that about Thanksgiving day
which separates 1t from every other day in
the year, for not only Is it the tribute of
individual hearts to God, but 1t Is more
In our home relations and in those of the
state and nation as well we go up as of old
went the tribes to pay our vows and rem
der our thanks to the Father who has
brought us SO far on our way. We seldom
and more the pity-sit down and count
the love tokens we get from the Skies
For the beauty of grove and field, for the
blushing fruitage Of the orchards, for the
wealth of the golden grains for the burst
ing fullness of our gamers, for the peace
regnant over discords, for the strength, the
courage and resource that financial reverse
has not wasted or broken, we lift up our
hearts in the Thanksgiving joy. For the
manhood of the country that assumes and
,it,fC re
pure and gracious womanhood, for the
light of love and the assurance Of faith in
countless thousands Of happy homes, we
lift up the voice in praise, while for the
churches whose spires climb one above an
other to lay their gilded fingers against
the stainless blue, from whose belfries
Ginning bells send forth notes of sweet
ness in the crowded city and over hillside
and valley marked here and there by the
belated dandelion or the solitary golden
rod-for these, for all our mercies, we lift
up the "Te Deum Laudamus," on this
day chant the "Gloria In Excelsis. 4"
Thanksgiving and the Thanksgiving joy
let them now and ever remain insepara-
BILE. On this day of all days, whether sit
ting in shadow or yet in the sunlight, we
surely may say with the man of God: al
though the fig tree shall not blossom, nei-
ther shall fruit be in the vines, the labor
of the olive shall fail and the fields shall
yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off
from the folu, and there shall be no herd
in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the
Lord, / will JOY in the God of my saliva
ton" All hail, CHEEKY, beautiful, thrice
welcome festival, that gathers to itself
sheaves Of charming memories and fifty
puts it's own cap sheaf on the harvested
riches of the year. Thrice welcome,
Thanksgiving day !-Christian at Work.