Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1905-01-14
TRUE SPIRIT OF THE DAY.
How Thanksgiving Day Should Find
Expression Within the
Heart of Man.

4 AS we nave noted elsewhere, our
Thanksgiving day is not essentially
or even distinctively New England
much less Puritan-festival. There
were Thanksgiving before Governor
Bradford's time, as there have been
ever since, and as there will be till
time shall cease to be. And when we
turn to the Sacred Book, is it not
sometimes more than n bald fact that
Praise and Love and Heaven claim pre-
eminence in Biblical treatment over
other subjects, except, indeed, God, His
Spirit and Christ? And how closely
| correlated is love with praise and
what is thanksgiving but the praise
| of the Divine Being for His bound
less mercies? So we are confronted
at the outset with the fact that first
and prominent is Thanksgiving
religious service--there is no true
thanksgiving without recognition of
an overshadowing Providence For, if
we have abundant harvest; if ours is
a land OF peace and plenty; If every
one enjoys freedom here that in its
completed sense is not enjoyed any
where else in the wide world as here;
! il we have free schools, and not only
have them for ourselves. but have in
| huenced other nations-and notably
Great Britain-in solving their own
| educational problems; If the human
tiles are being developed as never be-
fore; IL we have waged the wars that
have unwillingly come to us in a very
| different spirit from that in which
Joshua fought, who thought he was
serving God of infinite tenderness
and love in Staying the young and
| putting the mothers to the sword
IL all these blessings have come to us
and we are freed from pestilence,
whom shall we thank but the Giver
OF all good?
Hence it is, then, that we would
press home upon all observers of this
festival the difference between being
thankful and being glad A man
may be glad because he has won his
friends money at a gambling game;
he may rejoice that he has avenged
himself upon some one whom he re-
CARDS as his enemy; but thankful he
cannot truly be. AS nature is all I'M
satisfying save as we regard a sup
preme beneficent intelligence behind
her, so the good things that come into
1
our country are meaningless save as
they are traced back to the hand and
heart OF God. Did God create man
and give him an immortal soul, and
having accomplished that cease to care
for him? Did the Almighty lead the
Israelites through the waters; did He
establish them into a nation; did He
give them prophets who should in rapt
vision tell of Messiah whose reign
should be everlasting; did He tell of
people redeemed from the bondage Of
/ captivity, and from the most dread
full of all captivities-that of sin: did
He do all this and more, and has He
no pity, no love, no prophecy, no prom
Use for the teeming millions of these
United States, with It's hundred thou
sand of church spires pointing heaven
ward, and telling of the worship of the
one true God-whatever may be the de-
nominational polity of the sectarian
| cult?
We have taken this line of thought
at the present time, says the Christian
! Work, because. other lines will be pur-
sued by others as they mediate write
the Thanksgiving essay or preach the
AhahNScAfiuS SCI nun. nat Is 10 say,
We shall be told what a wonderful coun-
try we have; how many we can feed:
how great and strong we are; what an
mormous population we have; how many
miles Of railroad we have; how our
trolley lines have been extended (though
probably nothing will be said of our
indifference TO human life and the VIC
tins sacrificed yearly to electricity and
steam). So it is at this time we would
emphasize the religious aspect of our
| Thanksgiving festival. Good cheer,
even athletics and other phases of out
door sports, have come, and they will
remain. None the less, but al! the more
should we at least devote a portion of
the festival to the recalling of our
blessings, and to recognizing the hand
OF the Divine Author and Creator to
| Whom we owe them all. In this way
alone can our festival truly deserve its
Thanksgiving" title-in this way alone
can the day be made as helpful in the
religious life as it is full OF joy and hap
piness on its social side, when the aged
grandparents, the father and t moth
er, the children, some with Oh ldren OF
their own, assemble in the home
stead, recall the old memories ith faces
now vanished and voices nows He'd, and
the lovelight is seen in the eye and the
love greeting is received as il sure to
be every Thanksgiving day a. the years
go by.