Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1905-12-07
A THANKSGIVING SERMON.
Prea ched by Rev. S. Conybeare
at the NJ. E. church in Au-
dubon, Nov. 80 1905.

ligious life from many Christians.
Like nightingale he sings his sweet
est songs in the night AS we read
this psalm, we seem to hear him sigh
ing, to see him weeping and then all
at once he bursts into an exclamation
at the goodness of God. just at a.
time when many others reproach God,
wondering why he permits sorrow to
come into their experience, David is
rapt in admiration at the greatness
of the goodness OF God.
la the tenth verse he says, "My life
is spent with grief and my years with
sighing." His enemies had been par
ticularly active against him. But
looking away from man to God he
remembers his love and kindness and
exclaims in the language of the text,
"How great is thy goodness which
thou hast laid up"
The purpose of sermon on this oc-
casion is to stimulate gratitude To AL
mighty God. Gratitude should be the
dominant feeling in the heart on this
Thanksgiving Day, There are many
themes calculated TO stimulate graft
tude and may well he considered on
such an occasion. Among the many
the brief time at our disposal compels
us to make a choice. have selected
a subject which deem To be especial
y well adapted to the end in view, and
yet which perhaps has not been treat
ed as often in Thanksgiving service
as some others, viz: The Storehouse
of Gods Goodness, or the provision
God has made in nature to supply the
physical wants of the human race.
One of these storehouses is the SOIL,
(which the rude swain turns with his
share and treads upon" Yes, the
handful of dirt we fling away with con.
tempt is handful of Gods goodness.
1t is sacred thing. That little grain
of dust is a thought of God. Gods
power made it, his wisdom fashioned
! it, his providence put it where it is,
! for it is controlled by the laws of God.
| The greatest Christian poet of modern
times has said: ''To me the meanest
| flower that grows may give Thoughts
! that lie too deep for tears" Do you
explain to me that soil is nothing but
pulverized rock, mixed with decayed
| vegetable matter, the product of the
| forces of nature operating through
long periods of timer So understand
| it. But who set in motion these forces
of nature? Who laid down the laws
governing their operations? Who
caused these forces to so operate that
the soil should have just those ele-
ments necessary to the production of
vegetation? There is but one answer.
| GOD. When man came upon the
earth, whether by evolution or direct
creation he found an abundance OF
vegetable growth, planted by God
and cultured by God to supply his
! his needs. La the animals that roam
ed the forests, in the nuts and berries
that grew wild upon the trees, and in
the luXuriant growth of uncultivated
! grains, he found an abundance to sat
isfy the demands of appetite. AS the
| population increased and more was
needed for his support than could be
obtained within a given territory by
hunting or gathering, then man dis.
covered that certain animals could be
readily domesticated, such as sheep,
and cattle, and though these were still
supported by the wild growth of the
soil, yet by supplying man with milk,
wool and meat, they could not only
| meet the increased demand but prevent
the scattering of the human family
and thus preserve the social life and
the gratifying of the social instincts.
But as the population still continued
To increase, for there was no such
thing as race suicide In those days,
this pastoral and nomadic, mode OF
! living was found insufficient, and hav-
ing discovered growing in the soil
certain roots which are good for food,
man sets about cnltivating these roots
and now he no longer skins the sur
face of the soil but plOws deep into its
depths and finds it possessed of such
productive energies, hidden down be-
meath the root of the grass on which
the cattle were wont to Craze, that q
hundred acres can he made to support
as many people by its cultivation as
more than 1000 were needed to support
when used only for grazing purposes
God might have limited the capacity
of the soil to the production of few
staple articles such as wheat and po
tatoes to be eaten directly, and corr
and turnips to be converted into meat
Thus with bread and meat and pota
toes, man would be able to sustain
life. But the beneficent Creator has
given the soil the power of producing
food in great variety, some of which
i contain the most delicious llavors
thus greatly increasing the pleasure
of eating so that we shall not eat oul
Thanksgiving dinner merely to sus-
tain life, but for the purpose of tick
ling the palate with pleasing tastes
AS the population still increased, Co
lumbuses were raised up to discover
new worlds, for God in his providence
provided continent with the riches
of soils and then reserved it until thu
fullness of time and peopled it with
the pick of the race. But some ont
asks: What now when there are ne
new continents to be discovered, wher
all the best land is being rapidly pu
under the pillow? What will the sur
plus population do when the land j!
all under cultivationp What will TIN
people of the future do unless Their,
are some terribly destructive wars o
pestilences to reduce the population
The prospect of the overcrowding o
the world, of the population becoming
too large for the soil To sustain ha
caused serious thoughts in the minds
of political economists in days gon
by, and prophets of evil have arisei
prophesying terrible things. Abou
the close of the 18th century, politi
cal economist named Malthus argue,
that as result OF the increasing popu
lation, the weakest will die in larg
numbers of starvation, and many wer
the believers in Malthusianism. HI
taught that whilst the food suppl.
would increase in an arithmetica
ratio, the population would increas
i'm a geometrical ratio, hence the tim
must come when there would not b
food enough. Such prospect nigh
well create alarm, but am glad Il
say that the advance OF agricultural
science has been so great in recen
| wears that there is now no longer an