The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1905-12-15
THANKSGIVING SERMON.
Preached at the Unlon Services in The
Disciple Church, November 30. 1908.
by Rev. Charles d. Ellis.

Text-Psalm l47, 20.
"He hath not dealt so with any nation
***praise We the Lord"
This text refers i'm its first application
to the Hebrew nation. 1t is remind
er of the signal favors which Jehovah
had shown 10 that people.
1t was suggestive of deliverance from
the bondage of Egypt, of the bestOw-
ment upon the nation of fruitful land
and of the giving them Il marvellous
place among the worlds uplifting in
tluences.
But while these words apply in the
first instance TO that ancient people,
they are true of our own nation today,
as of no other people in the worlds his
tory. No nation has ever been provi-
dentially dealt with so favorably as
our own.
Our President has designated this
as day of national thanksgiving. He
has called our attention to the bounti-
full crops of the year, TO our abundant
business prosperity, to the peace which
pervades our country, and he calls on
our people to assemble i'm their places
of worship and consider the marvellous
divine fayOrs we are receiving and to
render thanks to the great Giver of our
manifold blessings. The observance of
days of thanksgiving is not of recent
origin. Our pilgrim fathers when they
landed upon the bleak shores of New
England almost Immediately appoint
ed and observed a thanksgiving day.
We smile ut some of the inconsis-
tencies of those sturdy puritans. On
one occasion in those early years our
puritan fathers had come together to
observe thanksgiving day and had
procured a deer from the forest, for the
feast. But before preparing the feast
they learned that the Indian from
whom they procured the deer had kill
ed the animal on the Sabbath day.
What should they do to testify to their
disapproval of such Sabbath desecra-
ton. What they did was to oblige the
Indian TO pay back the money he had
received for the deer and in addition
they gave him severe logging. Then
having suitably rebuked this heather
Indian for his disregard for the Sabbath
day they roasted their deer and served
it up in glad thanksgiving feast.
But though those sturdy pilgrims did
not always see religious truth in its
proper proportions and relations their
intention to be true to Gods will was
most marked and their fern sense of
loyalty to God has lief! its mark upon
our nation.
As we have come together in re-
cognition of or appreciation of the
blessings of God it is fitting that we
direct our thoughts toward some of the
more marked blessings of our favored
land.
First then we may well give thanks
to God that our land is pervaded by a
dominating sentiment or idea which is
the basis and condition of all our pros
perity. Through the providence of
God the foundations of our nation were
laid by an intensely religious people.
They were people who believed in
human rights and would not be denied
their rights even by kings or parlia-
ments. They held so fully to sense
of justice and equality and loyalty to
God that they put the stamp of their
character upon the population that now
occupies this favored country. With
the increase of the population of this
country there has been strengthening
of the sentiment of human brotherhood
and of loyalty to God till now our
country is dominated by what we might
call the American idea-a sentiment
which enthrones God as our nations
King and in the language of our presi-
dent demands a square deal for every
individual. The prevalence III our
country of his American idea is one of
our most marked reasons for thanks
giving. 1t is this sentiment which
makes possible the marvellous prosper
ity of this country.
During the past few weeks we have
been reading OF the thousands Ofpeople
marching through the streets of the
! mot rOnnlic nj (traat RI.itain i'm n capni-
starving condition demanding an op-
pOrtunity TO work at something which
would enable them to earn theirneeded
bread. While those hungry thousands
are demanding opportunities for labor
there are favored individuals in that
great empire who own their tens of
thousands of acres which they keep for
deer parks, or hunting preserves or
other pleasure purposes. If the sense
of human brotherhood and human
rights which pervades our country were
as strong in that empire the demand
would be made that those vast parks
and pleasure grounds be utilized to
furnish labor and bread to the hungry
people.
Recent statements are published that
in Russia 100000 people are facing
famine. Those famine stricken people
for years have been robbed by their
government. The government extor-
tions-called taxes-amount to from
20 TO so per cent of the annual income
of vast sections of the people. These
sums thus extorted from the impover-
ished people are not spent for the well
being of the nation rs a whole but
largely in minis tering TO the dissipa-
lions of favored classes. Had the real
religion of the Lord Jesus as firm a
hold of that people as of our own. If
a sense OF justice and human rights
and education prevailed as extensively
in Russia IN America the material
good things the country would be
more evenly d tributed, and those
millions now "a ny famine would be
abundantly led and development of
the resources al their country would
afford a prosp rity such as has never
been dreamed OF by that unhappy peo-
pie.
And so among the foremost reasons
for thanksgiving at this season is the
prevalence i'm our country of the