The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-11-27


The gradual betterment of the world. as
exemplited by the propOrti0nate decrease
In crime, was the cause of thankseiying
at the union services in Calvary Baptist
church yesterday. In this service Ply
mouth, Dwight and Trinity Methodist
churches united; The following eiergymen
Dr. William McLane and Rev. John G.
Lutz. Rev. George Il. Ferris, pastor of
Calvary church, was unable to be present
owing to the recent death of his mother.
Following programme:
Praise God from Whom Ali Blessings
Flow.
"a Hymn-Congregation.
Scripture LessOn-1O1 Psalm, so Give
Thanks to the Lord
| Fear Not, Lord"-Rogers.
Prayer by Rev. DR.. Rail.
Response-"God is a Spirit'-Bennett.
Ohertory-"What is like Unto Thee''-Fos
ofering-Board of city Missions.
Hymn 709-COngregation-"o Thou, Whose
bounties Fill my cup"
Sermon by Rev. DR.. McLane
Prayer by Rev. DR.. VIM. Lutz
Hymn 12l-"God the Only Wise, Who
Keeps Us by His Word.
Postlude- Thanksgiving March:
Warner; alto, Mrs. +. G: Ball; tenor, Mr..
Frank Shay and bass, Mr.. Riley Phillips.
The organist was c. Franklin Pierce
DR.. McLane's sermon dealt with the NOR
al causes of thanksgiving and he traced the
progressive Improvement, in the tone of
mems ideals during the last few centuries
and said that while crime received a prom
inent place in the press Its relative pro-
portion among men Is small. The entire
sermon was lofty in tone and generalizing
In treatment of living issues.
He chose the following texts:
.'0h that men would praise the Lord for
1,ta md nj
works to the children Of men. Psalm
107:S s4H ~ 4 - #z.
Brethren, whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honorable. whatso-
are pure, Whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are Of good report; II
there be any virtue, and If there be any
praise. think Of these things. "-Phillippi-
ans 4:S. ---..,s.. ,E.-g;.5ssrz,.ssz - s.Y@a...
We are assembled this morning in pursu-
ance of the proclamation of the president
of the United States and OF the proeiama-
tion of the governor OF the state OF Con.
necticut to render thanks to Almighty God
for his goodness and for his grace to us
during the past year. sss . ID,
Gratitude arises from the appreciation OF
the value of anything which we possess
and from the knowledge that 1t has been
given US by another. Gratitude to God
arises from the appreciation OF those things
which we receive from him and from the
recognition and knowledge OF the TACT that
they are his lifts. @a
That / may awaken or increase your graf
itude to-day, have selected the two texts
which have been read that they nay give
direction to your thoughts and inspire your
feelings. .-. %
The first text is prayer of prophetic
psalmist, who had taken wide. survey of
human experience, and who had seen the
goodness of God unto men. He had seen
| savedfron Impending death, he had seen
| the showers water the earth until the cat
tie were fed and the fields and vineyards
were filled with fruit; he had seen men
foilies and forgiven their iniuities; he hadq
seen men who had rebelled againts God
restored unto him, and men who had been
overcome by their Anniversaries delivered out
OF their distresses and BROUGHT again 20
wide vision Of human experience and OF d
vine mercy and grace, he exclaimed: ON
that men would praise the Lord for his
goodness, and for his wonderful works TO
| the children of men.
The second text is an apostolic instruc-
| tfon as to the things which men should see
| and upon which they should think. He
says: brethren think Of t 5he things o wh1ea
| truthful, the ethical element Of truthful.
ness In men--think Of the things which are
honorable--or worthy OF respect and honor
eft the things which are ppIe,of fne things ,.s
among men--of the things which are leyely,
| or ioTable, Of the things which are Of good
report, or rather praiseworhy- think OF
those thinSs.
There are two things for which we may
terial, and things which are moral and spir-
itual Things which are material inhere in
nature and come to US from nature; things
which are moral i hh n men an and s, come me
things. st. Paul babe the Christians Of
Corinth remember that all things We're
theirs, not the world only, but also Paul
and Anollos and Cephas.
As a cause for thanks that might from
casual observation appear the reverse he
| said: 4.5s. 3t3 s.s4 III
50 1t comes to pass that the evil things
| of life-things untrue, dish0norable, unjust,
large space in our newspapers, in our
public discussions Of social matters and In
the thoughts of our people. So 1t comes
| to pass that in the daily press even news
sensational will have headlines such as
these: Accident Due to Carelessness;"
''Divorce in High Life, Robbery" Muir
DER" 'Suicide;" "Defalcation;" and much
more Of the same order The attention Of
the pubic is called to these things while
meanwhile a thousand things In the same
communities, which are the opposite Of
these in faithfulness, @love, honesty, and the
| lie discussion also of social and political
| life, unavoidably perhaps, calls attention
to the evils And no one who is good can
be thankful for evil. Now far be 1t from
me to underestimate the evils personal
social, financial and political, which exist
among us, But am glad to have the op-
portunity on this Thanksgiving day to call
attention to the good which exists among
us as a nation.
Recent statistics, however, show that the
entire number of criminals in prison in the
United States is somewhere from eighty
to ninety thousand. Perhaps some of these
scarcely deserve punishment. and perhaps
some who are outside Of prisons deserve
punishment, but assuming that these fig
ures represent, approximately, the criminal
class, we find that the proportion of Grim
inals is but little above one person in ev-
cry thousand of the population. Now, you
may think Of that one criminal and place
him at the head of one thousand other per-
sons until you see him alone and the others
are hidden by him, or you may think of the
nine hundred and ninety-niRe persons out
of every thousand who have at least suf-
fictent goodness of character and sufficient
uprightness of conduct to keep them with
in the limits of the law. And, to my mind,
1t will be better for you to think of the
men who are, at least, reasonably good
and thereby be made thankful
Labor is natures first law for mans life,
and by labor man Is to live. The number
of poor who are maintained at public ex-
pense in the United States is about seven
ty-five or eighty thousand, that's about one
payper to every thousand Of the popula-
ton. The number Of persons employed in
such daily labor as receive wages is about
twenty-five millions, and, If to this number
Il n,4I Nl.tI