The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1899-11-04
W OF BLESSINGS.
"o'ephens the People 0f
missourf to Recognize the
Source of All Good Gifts,

source OF All Good Gifts.
Gov. Stephens has issued his Thanks
giving proclamation for this year az
follows:
The season approaches in which
1t has been the long-established and
ueepiy-cherished national custom to
select and set apart one day as the
umc to offer Thanksgiving to Al
mighty God for the blessings of the
year. A calling to mind of manifold
favors which we have been permitted
through the days and nights of an
other II months to enjoy at once en-
riches and ennobles our lives as a peo-
pie. 10 recognize and publicly ac-
knowledge the Divine source. of all the
good gifts of life, begets a reverenr
and grateful spirit, and makes our re-
lation of these gifts more vivid, and
our sense of obligation to the Giver of
All Good keener and more immediate.
The sons and daughters go back to
the old home, that they may gather
round the family h%earthstone and ill
with joy the hearts of father and
mother, grandfather and grandmother,
and in loving fellowship reknit the
tender ties broken by months, and per-
haps years, of separation. This re-
union tends to sweeten and soften the
hearts both of old and young. Tie
celebration of the Thanksgiving fam
lily festival under the old roof tree
awakens a long train of tender mem
cries, lightens the burdens which Are
hard 10 bear, and conserves all that is
pure and holy in domestic life.
While such a festival has at all
tines a suitable place in the family
year book, it possesses an especial APP
proprilteness in a season like the pres
ent. Not in any period of the history
of the commonwealth has it ever been
possible to inc greater cause for graf
itude to our Heavenly Father than at
the close of the present year. Cur
common inheritance in the universal
bounties of nature, made up of fair and
light, rain and sunshine, smiling
fields, flowing streams and richly
stored mines. has not failed us. While
we should be thankful for the tenn
poral blessings of which we have been
the recipients, yet it should be Il sub
ject of profound gratitude to the
Ruler of Nations that He has given 10
us that spirit of liberty which has
made u nation the asylum for the
oppressed of all other nations. We
should be especially grateful that as a
nation there lies as a foundation store
the universal brotherhood of man, and
that if we should sometimes forget our
duty to our fellowmen we have a po-
tent remedy in the voice of the whole
people, the final arbitor of our civil
rights.
Let us therefore earnestly pray hat
the time yet hidden in the great future
MAJ speedily come when ICED shall
judge among the nations, and rebuke
many people, and they shall beat their
swords into EloughShareS and their
spears into pruning hooks. Nations
shall not lift up the swor:i against M
lions. Neither shall they learn wal
any more"
\ growing disposition On the part of
the strong and well-to-Go to found and
foster institutions, the object of which
is to make it possible for the many 70
share the wealth and privileges of the
bcrificent few, is a noteworthy indi-
cation of the coming of Ii better time.
and is cause sufficient for profound
Thanksgiving. "This also cometh down
from the Lord of Hosts, wonderful in
council and excellent in working"
Through schools and universities,
through orphan homes and hospitals
established and sustained by those
among us who nave ronsecrated theft
wealth to the public good, the igno-
rant, the poor, the sick and The dying.
are made to feel that tenderness and
sympathy, generosity and good will
are ever on the increase in the hearts
of their fellows.
! Therefore, I proclaim Thursday, No
vember 30. 1899. a day of general and
public thanksgiving, recommending
that the people of this state suspend
their secular avocations and assemble
in their respective places of worship
and render grateful offerings of praise
to the Bountiful Givcr Of All Good,
with deyout supplications for His abid-
ing favor and protecting care. In
these services charitable consideration
for the poor and sympathy with the
sorrowing will not be wanting.
Lon V. STEPHENS, Governor.
A GOOD RECOMMENDATION.