The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-11-28
HOW THANKSGIVING PASSED
OFF IN THE MISSION
AIRY CAPITAL
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Palestine has not left us buildings o.
material wealth. 1t has left us tn,
idea OF Righteousness. The great bur
den of the phophets was Righteousness
eXalteth nation" The statemen
that the nations that forget God shall
perish" is fulfilled upon every page O
history. The owl and the bittern anG
the jackal inhabit the ruins Of great
cities whose people trusted in their
material wealth.
1t is said that the government Of the
| United States is on trial So it is. The
government of every nation is on trial
If it trusts in things it perishes. Only
SO far as it stood for truth will what it
had or what it did survive. If Great
Britain were to perish its great gift of
constitutional government and the
guarantee of personal liberty under
! law would remain, because they are
incorporated into every government
| which seeks to uplift mankind. If
some catastrophe were to end the
United States, there would live the
great ideals which she has given to the
world, the ideals Of a government of
the people, for the people, by the peo-
p1. 1t was expected that this would
| result in a righteous and pure govern
ment. The ideal has never been real
lied. It's conception that If the people
govern the highest and best will come to
the front has again and again brought
woeful disappointment. The govern
ment Of states and of cities has at
times brought the blush of shame TO
the cheek of every honest man.
Again and again have people risen
against corruption, again and again
has evil reasserted itself. But the
American ideal is still belief in man.
Through every failure it has held fast
to the hope, the expectation that gov
eminent will be honest and business
like, because the people govern. The
very fact that wickedness in high
places will not long be tolerated, that
people rise up, as in New York or st.
Louis, and bring evil doors to justice
is sign that people will not tolerate
the bad. If the United States ceased
to be, it's ideals, set forth in the Dec
laration of Independence. would live on
in the future of the race. Our constant
labor is to strive to carry our ideals
into national life in word and deed
as citizens
But there is the other aspect of
Thanksgiving day; it is thankfulness
for the fruits of the earth. If there are
difficulties in the first case from an
idea against which God warned the
Hebrews in the lesson read today, lest
they should say, my own power has
gotten me this wealth." forgetting God,
who has given the opportunities and
the power, so there is the difficulty in
the other instance that men shall, in
this day, forget that God has anything
to do with harvests. Kipling, in that
ode where he rises to great heights,
speaks as a prophet when he rings out
the words Lest we forget" God and
put our trust in ''reeking tribe and
iron shard." But we need also to be
reminded that to God we owe our daily
food. AS we eat our dinner today, to
which the several continents have con-
tributed something, because the things
have passed through so many hands
before we purchased them we are apt
to forget that God had anything to do
with them. Did you ever realize that
the world has never more than three
food supply ahead, and that a
failure of crops for one sea-
son would we'll nigh put an end to the
race? 1t is when we think of this, and
realize that if God, who swings this
planet and all the heavenly bodies in
His hands, if He were for one instant
to withhold His sustaining power as
known to us in what we call the forces
of nature, then the Universe would
collapse. The crude ideas of the
Psalmist are outgrown by us, and yet
we marvel that this man, living so
long ago in little Palestine. could have
such broad vision of God of His
works and of mans place in the Uni
verse. Modern knowledge only en-
larges and makes more wonderful
the works of God and His imminence
in nature at every instant.
If man says he has no one to
thank, or nothing to be thankful for,
it is because he has a narrow vision.
A man who has nothing to be thankful
for is a narrow thinker or a narrow
liver. One Of the best ways to have a
thankful heart towards God is by kindly
acts to know what gratitude is from
our fellow men. By a strange trans
mutation the thankfulness of other
hearts to us is turned into thankful |
ness on our part to God.
II is difficult at times, when we take |
the present, to see anything to be |
thankful for. When a man takes some |
section of his life and examines it mi |
he may feel that he can |
not have a thankful heart. If we go |
to the Psalmist we shall learn that |
our narrow way of looking at things |
is not the right way. David had a |
wonderful experience. He had a most |
varied experience as boy, as a war |
rior, fugitive, king, sinner, a saint. !
He looked at life as whole. To him, |
life was as a river. You could not |
Judge it by an eddy here or cross |
current there. 1t must be judged by |
it's purpose and aim and end as it |
lowed along, despite all, into the great /
ocean of eternity. He saw purpose !
in it all, an end TO be attained, and so !
the troubled eddies took their natural |
place in his vision. Because he did |
his, he could write words in which the |
thankful hearts of each succeeding gen.
sration delight to express their praise |
to God He could praise God in the |
fires" as the three Hebrew children |
did, in that Benedicite which We sang |