Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-11-24

instruments, more pictures upon the
walls and more of everything that goes
to make temporal life happy than ever
greeted any Thanksgiving day before.
Thanksgiving day is harvest day-a
day for recounting your temporal as
well as your spiritual blessings 1t is
a time for thanking God for full cup
board as well as for church altar.
The Freedom From Sin.
The pilgrim fathers rejoiced because
they had removed their children from
the sinful temptations of a foreign
land. They themselves were men and
women of sterling and unimpeachable
integrity. They were just as willing
to lay down their lives as martyrs for
Jesus Christ, in Leyden in 1920, as
were their three fellow townsmen, Hen
ry Barrows, John Greenwood and John
Penny, who, in 1903, laid down their
lives in England; but, though the pill
grim fathers might be ready to die for
Christ, their undeveloped children, on
account probably of the influence Of
their foreign surroundings, were not al
ways of the same mind. Their sons
and daughters sometimes drifted away
from the principles of their fathers
They not only fell into the sinful habits
of this European city, but they married
the sons and the daughters of the for
eigners. They enlisted in the foreign
navies and went forth as free lances to
the foreign wars, and it was in order
to save their own flesh and blood from
the sinful contact of the "uncircum-
cised Philistines," as we'll as for reli-
gious liberty, that the pilgrim fathers
turned their backs upon the land of
their adoption and the homes of their
friends. Shall we not, then, on this
Thanksgiving day of 1902 be thankful
that we can rear our children in a land
whose silver dollar is stamped with
the suggestive motto, 'In God We
| TrustT' Taking our little children's
faces between our two hands and look
ing lovingly and earnestly into the
/ depths of their pure eyes, can we not
be thankful that both we and they are
living in Christian communities where
| human affections are held sacred and
where purity is not an oddly and prac
|
few vestal virgins consecrated to life
long service in heather temple? Can
we not thank God that our children are
not breathing the morally depraved at
mosphere of some less fortunate land
whose daughters are sold like chattels,
never even seeing nuptial day, and
where a wife is regarded as disgracing
a family when she becomes the mother
of a daughter instead of son?
We place priceless value upon the
physical lives of our children. Shall we
not also place priceless value upon
their spiritual welfare? How much
we value them few of us realize until
we are brought face to face with the
sore trial of parting from them. l used
to consider myself poor man financial
ly until few years ago. | never do SO
now after the following experience: I
had been visiting my mother in the east
and was returning with my wife and
little daughter to my Pittsburg home.
Being very tired from overwork, l lay
down in the cars to sleep. Meanwhile
my little baby daughter began to smile
and nod her head at stern faced man
reading across the aisle. She held out
her hands for him to take her. After
awhile his face lighted up with an an
swering smile. He took the baby on
his lap and played with her hour after
hour. AS we neared the Smoky City
this stern faced man came to me and
said: Young man, 1 do not know who
you are, but here is my card. l am one
of the wealthieSt men in Milwaukee.
have everything that money can buy
but | have a home without any chill
dren. Young man, you can thank Goo
that you have family. And if yor
are willing to give me this baby ant
let me adopt her 1 will give you Ger
titled check for $4,000, and she shall
be my daughter and inherit all that
have" OF course l refused the offer
I told that man there was not enough
money in all the treasury of the United
States to buy my flesh and blood, and
though you may laugh when | tall
about my $4,000 baby, yet 1 am no
putting any higher valuation upon thu
physical lives of any one of my chill
dren than every father sitting befor
me today would upon his. If we par
ents thus place so high our physica
valuation of our children, shall we no
, also place just as high the spiritual val
/, uation? Like the pilgrim fathers of old
. shall we not rejoice this coming Thanks
giving day because our children ar
not only living in Christian homes, blu
also in Christian neighborhoods an
under the shadow of the spires o
Christian churches? Shall we not re
, joice because on account of being Dor
in Christian land they may the NOR
easily learn to love Christ? Shall W
not rejoice that on account of thei
=, spiritual advantages after their life
y work is done they will associate wit
= us in the great harvest home, where a
= eternal Thanksgiving day shall be sper
\ in the green pastures and by the sti
waters of heaven?