The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-29
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.


Bv THE REV. FRANK
 Chicago, November 22.-In this sermon, appropriate to the season, the preacher points out the manifold reasons we have as a nation for a joyful acknowledgement of Gods goodness to us on every hand. The text is Proverbs KY, 15, He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast''
 Thanksgiving day! What does this American queen of festivals mean to the average hungry boy-for the average American boy is always fungryi A feast. a great big dinner A feast which is fa+ nous for two characteristics-firs quan- tlty-that is the great essential; second. quality this second characteristic must tread closely upon the heels of the former. Not only should there be plenty of food and not only should the soups and the fish. the turkeys and the ducks and the vegetables and the salads and the pies and the buildings and the ice cream be marshaled in courses, but these courses must all be of good quality. Then the gardens should contribute their finest pumpkins. the vineyards their most lus- eious fruits and the orchards their rich est juices. Then the cooks must try to outdo themselves by testing the secred recipes for the mince pies-these recipes which the cooks guard as iealously as the patent medicine men do the formulas of their cure alls' or as that famous Del aware family does the secrets by which it is able to hold as a monopoly the mak- ing of gunpowder for the nation. A Thanksgiving day for a hungry boy and no banquet! It would be a farce, an ab- surdity; wedding without bride. Hamlet" without the Dane, a spring car nival of flowers with no May queen an orchestra without music, a comedy, a mer- rymaking with no dishes Barmecide feastl
 We have never fully outgrown our early respect for the culinary masterpieces of the Thanksgiving kitchen We hope that we never shall. But today we would in- terpret our text from higher standpoint than the hungry boys stomach. We would apply it in the figurative sense, to the banquet of gratitude, the banquet of love, the banquet of divine mercy-the when he wrote these words: He that is of merry heart hath continual feast" It is in order to recount some of the many mercies both national and domestic that I preach this sermon. May our hearts, one and all be joyful on the com Ing Thanksgiving day,
 Gods Goodness and Mercy.
 My purpose extends beyond the day itself Next Thursday by presidential and subernatorial appointment. we call to mind our national mercies and as a nation render thanks to him who has crowned the year with his goodness, but his bless ings to us as individuals are so many and so great that they demand what Solomon in tax-f 1- af alone on the coming Thanksgiving day, but every day from year to year as we re- ceive daily bounties from his hand, should our hearts beat with love and gratitude to him whose goodness and mercy follow us all our days. Thanking him for past mercies trusting him for future blessings, let us rejoice that we have a God so good and kind, and thus let our thanksgiving become perpetual and our gladness con- tinual feast,
 Let us rejoice over our national possess sions geographical. We have a country, not a little island like England; not re- claimed sea bottom. like Holland, nor collection of mountain tops like Switzer- land, nor a harborless territory like Aus tria, nor a national chicken coop like Por tugal. nor a menaced government like France, with the drowning guns of Metz trained upon her capital but we have a land stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific from the great lakes to the gulf stream. Our wheat fields are the Red river valleys of the Dakotas, our coal mines the inexhaustible veins of Pennsyl- yania and Ohio, our cotton fields the snow like treasures of Louisiana and Ala bama, our fragrant gardens the Floridas or the Hand of flowers;" our vineyards and orchards the Mchigans and the Cali fornas our pools of Bethesda the health springs of the Virginias and the Saratogas and the Arkansas. Our rivers are the mighty Hudson, the Mississippi and the Missouri Nature has given us as altars at which to worship the storm riven rocks of Mounts Washington and Shasta and Pikcs Peak. which are old enough to have heard God thunder from Mount Sinai and whose hearts may have been shattered al the tragedy of Calvary Fertile and beautiful our land Yes, it is situated in the temperate zone. the best of all clim- ates. The intense fires of the tropics can not burn it, nor the refrigerating blasts of the far north freeze it. Truly it is with us as with the people who inherited the promised land: "rhe Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land; land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; land of oil, olives and honey: a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness-thou shalt not lack anything in it; land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass When thou hast eaten and art full then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee
 Our National Possessions.
 Good not only in reference to it's fertll- ity but also in size. The United States, exclusive of the immense gold fields of Alaska, is estimated to have an area of over 3025, 500 square miles. Few people have any conception of that enormous ter ritory means. A few months ago dis gruntled statesman of Texas was report ed to have declared that in the near fu- ture the United States government would dini,,tnnrnfn He heopnd inc Texans Id