The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1903-12-04

QdIlOu. lnCAO heAS
been a tendency,
since the day became fixed as a ma
tionaI holiday, and was regularly des-
ignAted each year as such, to suporol-
nate the true spirit and purpose OF the
day to the sports and festivities Whlch
have crowded into its observance. IL
is the day of the great football con-
tests. it is the day of feasting, ana par
ties and merry making and pleasure
seeking, but it is no longer the day winch
fills the churches with their devout con-
gregations whose hearts rise to COO
in thankful recognition of His goodness
and mercies. In old New England, Where
the day as observed in this country had
its origin. Harriet Beecher Stowe tells
us that, great as the preparations were
for the dinner and the festivities OF the
day, everything was so contr,ved that
not a soul in the house should be kept
from the morning service OF ThanksglV-
ing in the church" But to-day 1t is not
So Church attendance is the excep-
ton rather than the rule. In most places
the union service of half dozen diner
ent churches has hard work mastering
respectable audience. Instead OF every
church being filed with its thank-oHer-
ing. praise-giving people. the large ma
jority of them stand mute and empty,
while the families which should be
there are busy with the pleasures and
festivities of the day. This is dishonor-
ing to God violation of the purpose OF
the day, and disrespectful Indifference
to the request of the president, that the
people of the land shall gather in their
respective houses of worship and there
render unto God thanksgiving for the
blessings which He has bestowed during
the past year. Our Thanksgiving
message is of the Bountiful God, and
we want to take away the indefinite
and meaningless thought of God and
engraft in its place a deep conscious
ness of the personal relations of God
the Creator and Giver to man the crea-
ture and the recipient The farmer
needs to lift his gaze above the tassel-
and granaries; the man in commercial
life must look above the gold which
jingles over his counter as he buys and
sells; the clerk at his desk or behind
the counter and the workman at his
bench should see beyond and above the
task and the pay envelope which the
employer passes out; the professors
books should lift higher than the hui
man; the scientists telescope should
reach beyond the stars. There should
be consciousness OF God in the heart
of all-that He is the Bountiful God,
the Giver of all good. This is not
merely sentiment; it 10 definite con-
ception of God based upon fact.
n Cd as the Giver of all good must
~ be the source of all good Con-
slider this proposition carefully. 1t
suggests God as the proprietor of the
vast supply house of the universe AS
Creator, God has filed this supply
house with every good and perfect gift
for man. AS Ruler of the universe,
He has maintained the supply through
out the ages of mans existence upon
earth. And as Giver He has bestowed
these inexhaustible gifts upon man.
Let us consider first, then, God as
Creator. Evolution cannot eliminate
God as the primary factor from His
universe. The theory of evolution may
explain the orderly methods by which
Gods infinite power has called into
being every created thing, but it does
not explain God away, neither does it
disprove the story of creation as re-
corded in the inspired Word of God
God has planted the earth with the
myriad forms of plant life that man
might be supplied with food. and raj
ment, and shelter. He has swung the
great sun in the blue vault of the
heavens that 1t might give light and
warmth and perpetuate the various
forms of life which had been placed
upon the earth. He sends the rain and
the dew TO refresh the earth and make
II bring forth abundantly He stored
within the bosom of old Mother Earth
every conceivable treasufe-the coal.
the gas. the oil, the gold. the silver,
the baser metals, the precious stones
everything which man has discovered
and utilized for comfort, for utility, for
adornment, was first nodded into form
by the touch Of God and placed where
man could fnd IL And the fact that