The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-27
REV. F. |. PHALEN
Talks on the True
Meaningof Thanks.
giving.
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT.
The Personal Responsibility
Resting on
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT.

Two passages OF scriptures were CIV
en- as texts, one from Exodus xiii, 16,
Thou shalt keep the feast of harvest,
and the other from Revelations vii, II,
Thanksgiving be unto our God for
ever and forever Rev. Mr.. Phalen
said in part:
These two fragments of scripture
hint of the purpose and meaning of
the hour. We desire to celebrate the
feast of the harvest and to give thanks
to the Divine Goodness for His album
dant gifts to the children of men.
While We rejoice in the midst of fruit
and flowers, the product of field and
garden, the grape and corn, the abund-
ance OF food and comfort that come
from earth and sky, we should be less
than human if no sense of gratitude
should stir in our hearts. But, be-
sides feeling the sentiment of graft
tude and the keen appreciation of ma
lures bounty in our private hearts,
it is natural and good to unite in the
social and religious expression of
OUR COMMON THANKFULNESS.
From the earliest days, and among
vest season has been celebrated.
In all lands and in all times the har-
vest has been celebrated by feasts and
festivals, and our own Thanksgiving
day is not an institution created by
our Pilgrim fathers, but a custom
brought from over the sea. To be sure,
Our Thanksgiving day has come to have
distinctly American spirit and
flavor, but the idea of set
giving is older than Pilgrim or Puri-
tan, older than Roundhead or Cavalier
Strange must be the mind and heart
which lives amid the wonders and
wealth of nature and never feels stirred
to rejoice and be glad at the beauty
and prooigality and glory revealed.
From the early days of the Pilgrim and
the Puritan, the harvest season and the
thanksgiving festival have gone along
side by side From that first thanks
giving in Plymouth in 1921, when the
brave pioneers in the new land re-
joiced IN their harvest feast of turkey
and venison, fruit and vegetables, and
had as guests at their board their
Indian neighbors, among them the
great chief MasSaSoit, from that day to
this, there has been a steady develop
ment of family and social life around
this New England festival which has
spread over the whole nation. This
festival was developed by home life. But
if Thanksgiving day is to maintain it's
historical value and not degenerate it.
self into a mere holiday of feasting and
sports, we must try to remember it is
not only a day for the home circle, but
day in which to
THINK OF OUR CIVIC LIFE.
We would not go back if we could
to Plymouth colony in the seventeenth
century, neither do we desire to repeat
the life of those days. But it were we'll
for the state and we'll for the church
if we had more of the iron in the blood
and the grip of spiritual realities
which belonged to those stern and try
ing days. We do not bewail the pres
ent, nor despair because there are evil
tendencies rampant and powerful
abroad. But we do long for the vigor-
Gus and solemn sense of duty to state
and church which makes the early days
of New England luminous. Our prob
lens of today are not those of the ear
ly days but it is we'll worth while to an
ticipate Thanksgiving day and cele-
brate the harvest season to consider
the eminently practical and judicious
suggestions which our governor has
given US in his proclamation.
Now it is just because there is liber-
ty in America, in religion, in literature
in science in politics, in art, that we
need as people to feel the personal
responsibility that rests upon US much
more heavily than it does upon the cit
izen or the unit of society in mon
archy, where religion is established
and maintained by the state. Every
step we have taken in liberty calls for
an added appreciation of the duty that
falls upon each one of us to maintain
A HIGH SENSE OF HONOR
as citizens and to give our earnest in
huence to every cause and institution
which seeks to uphold the morality of
the community.
Hence it is a good thing for those
who are in authority in the state to re-
mind us that the foundations of the
nation are in our homes and our peo-
Pile, in our intelligence, our morality,
our religion, not in our navy, our wheat
or our factories Manhood and virtue
make a people.
We rejoice in the harvest of nature,
but if our human harvest is degener-
ate, disreputable and drunken, our
wealth and splendor is only the SHIN
mering spectre which lures us onward
to our speedy downfall. Our governor
reminds us that we have cause to be
Providence. Surely we must admit this
when we compare the prosperity and
progress everywhere manifested in Am
erica with the sad fortune of Spain, the
infamy of France in it's treatment of
Dreyfus the war between the British
and the Beers in South Africa, and
many other complications and difficult
ties which perplex societies and nat
tons. Who can number the blessings
q n DC
commonwealth, as a city, as individuals
since last Thanksgiving day? Think
of them: Life, health, friends, home.
happiness, intelligence, good fortune,
natures endless charm, spring and
summer. winter and autumns golden
glory. There is another side to this
picture, the shadow side, but it only
serves to
MAKE THE LIGHT BRIGHTER.
The pastor spoke of the sadder
things in life and their effect on the
human heart.
One of the best signs of the times is
that we are conscious of our limita-
tons. We are not plunging headlong
but have watchmen in the bow and
rigging of the ship of state The world
is becoming conscious of its power, its
duty, its destiny. Christendom is rous-
lhS ITO ehei Sles mt giant awakening
from slumber. The speaker then
spoke of some of the duties of the cit
izen and the young man and woman
who are so soon to take their place in
the busy world.
There are glorious opportunities for
doing good in this world of ours. Let
us rise to the true grandeur of our OBJ
portunities and make the nation to
which we belong the noblest nation of
the world.
TOO low they build who build beneath
the stars"