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

JOnn Carver ana the company were
ready to let any one go who would.
The spirit which led the descendants
Of the pilgrim fathers a century and q
half later to shed their blood at Con-
cord and Lexington and Bunker Hill to
prove that taxation without repre-
sentation was wrong and must not ex-
ist'' was that same spirit which made
the pilgrim fathers on Americas first
Thanksgiving day rejoice in religious
liberty. They thanked God for religious
liberty, even though the dead sleeping
upon Burial hill outnumbered the liv-
Ing. They thanked God for religious
liberty, even though, to protect it, they
had to go to church armed. While the
main congregation prayed with their
eyes shut, their sentinels on guard had
to pray with their keen. vigilant eyes
wide open. So next Thursday, fellow
countrymen, let us thank God for re-
ligious liberty.
Let us thank God that when we arise
In the morning we can gather our lit
tie children about the family altar and
have morning prayers without having
any Lord Claverhouse pounding upon
our door or without hearing the tramp
of any Bloody" McKenzie's hirelings
ready to lead us out to execution.
When 10 o'clock comes next Thursday
morning and we hear the bells of Gods
sanctuary tolling, let us be thankful
that we do not have to worship our
Heavenly Father in secret, as the early
,,,4s, 70 a IN, 41n -Iy 10
| combs of ancient Rome or as the pill
| grims before their embarkation secret
| ly did it in the stable of the ScrOoby
manor house. When next Thursday
we sit down to a Thanksgiving dinner
and say grace, our children and loved
ones being gathered about the dining
room table. grooming under the weight
| of the best viands the markets afford,
may we thank God that that dinner
will not be stopped on account of that
| grace o religious liberty, thou art
not always honored in this twentieth
century, for the living have never seen
the dagger of bigotry driven into thy
rich, warm, throbbing heart! o re-
ligious liberty, before whose shrines
1
tremble and at whose affairs the cove
nanters and the pilgrims were ready
to sacrifice their lives, may we be ready
to rapturously greet thee next Thurs
day morning and to reverently touch
the pure white hem Of thy garment
with the holy kiss of thankful lips! It
was for this religious liberty that the
pilgrim fathers thanked God in 1921.
1t is for religious liberty that we, their
children, ought to welcome the au-
tumnal queen Of American festivals.
With humble prayer and fasting
In every strait and grief
They sought the Everlasting
And found a sure relief
Their covenant-God O. ershadowed them,
Their shield from every foe.
And gave them here a dwelling place
Two hundred years ago.
The Lesson of the Pilgrims.
My friend, there ought to be lesson
for you in the pilgrim fathers graft
tude to God for the supplying of their
necessary temporal wants. You may
not be a millionaire. You may not
have q big bank account nor enough
money to keep you in ease if you
ceased to work; but, like the pilgrim
fathers of old, on this Thanksgiving
day of N02 you can thank God that
you have a home in which to live, no
matter how humble that home may be-
You can thank God that you have
enough clothes to keep you warm and
enough good, plain, wholesome food to
eat Should your table be simply
spread you can thank God with the
same humble, beautiful Christian spir.
it with which Elder William Brewster
of Plymouth colony gave thanks. AL
though the bread supply and the coffee
and tea supply and nearly all Other
!, supplies for months had failed, and he
and his family for weeks at a time
, were compelled to live upon fish alone
yet William Brewster used to gather
his children about his table and uttel
! a devout grace. With nothing bu
clans and oysters for breakfast, din
ner and tea month in and month out
J William Brewster used to thank Coz
/ 'that they were permitted to enjoy thu
: abundance Of the sea and the treasure
| hid in the sand"
But, although few of us may thanl
God merely for the bare necessaries
5 most of us can thank him next Thurs
day morning for the luXuries as well
, Our national prosperity was never a
:. great as today. If we were to eros
+ the seas and recount to the inhabitant
of any other land all the Temporal
D blessings with which we are surround
ed, those foreign inhabitants would no
: believe the Utopian stories we woul
y tell them. They would be as skeptica
+ about our Munchausen-like tales as TIL
n relatives of one of DR.. William S
/ Breckinridge's parishieaers were SUI
n posed to be.
q 1t was during time of great plent
: In Kentucky. Food at that time was
s abundant as to be practically withor
Il value But one day this parishiont
IS came to DR.. Breckenridge and aske
Il him to write to his family in Irelan