Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-11-29

giving: The pilgrims, as they came to
II is count, came baaming IN heart VIII
domestic happiness. Lovers looked in
each others eyes and saw love returned.
The early Thanksgiving was one which
father, mother. son and daughter to-
gether thanked God for the blessing thus
enjoyed dhpMTipg5 ysar. I hope we have
not depah'ted' from this, and if W. have,
let us return to it; not because it is puri-
tanic, but because it magnifies HON and
home life. l think 1 see the Christian
father of New England today look out
on the Vermont hills watching for the
return Of children and grandchildren.
! see in yon 'sr southland, oathed in the
warm sun, the household as they clasp
he nds on tbs national Thanksgiving
morning. SO it is on the western coast
and all over this nation of ours today
we give the thanks to Our Father.
But let us forget this religious
Thanksgiving. We come here this morn
ing because we believe in God, the crea-
tor and Dreserver of all mankind. The
first Thanksgiving was pre-eminehtly
religious. A nation Is only great as it
lovingly recognizes, conforms and serves
God, for 1t is only as We thus serve, that
our moral life is extended and builded
up. Nations fail because they forget
God and their moral life decays.
We are sufficiently familiar with the
facts of history to know hat empires
have risen in political power till they
reached the zenith of glory, and then
gradually sank lower and lower till their
glory was extinguished in the da1lless
of unending night. The intellectual life
of a people has gradually climbed higher
and higher until it blazed like the noon
day sun in the heavens. We read of the
splendid Augustan age, the Medician age,
the Elizabethean age, the age of Louis
XIV, There seem to nave been times
when the apex of intellectual power and
splendor was reached. Then there came
a gradual decline toward mediocrity, and
the world asked when shall we see the
like again? 1t may be a question wheth-
er succeeding ages have produced as
splendid intellects. Again, we know that
individuals reach the zenith of physical
and intellectual vigor, n then declen-
sion of their owe begins. All these
facts are patent enough, but We have
flattered ourselves that moral powers
never reach their zenith. We are not, ac-
customed to think of a mans moral pow
ers as declining when body and mind be-
gin to fail, but as in a continual state
of progression. When certain nations
become corrupt, and consequently lose
their prestige and fade from the
constellation of nations, we still cher
ish the belief that the world as a
whole, is advancing, and that the
moral powers in the universe
are every day growing stronger.
At the Mountain View NJ. E. church
the program was as follows:
Organ voluntary: invocation, w. c.
Shipper; "Gloria," people standing;
singing 42S; the apostles creed: prayer,
John Hosking, people kneeling, and
closing with the Lords praye anthem,
by full choir; reading scripture, Psalm
1O3, Matt. v, Lie: solo, Mrs. McFar-
land: reading presidents Thanksgiving
proclamation; thank Offering for the
poor; sermon, S. H. c. Burgin; praye
l.. l.. Tower; singing, america 1889;
doxology; benediction.