Los Angeles herald., 1905-12-01
church, preached the sermon. He said

church, preached the sermon, He SAID
in part:
"Go your way; eat the fat; drink the
sweet and send portions unto them for
whom nothing is prepared; for this day
is holy unto the Lord. Neither be ye
sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your
strength.
1.-The scenes surrounding this text
are full of thought appropriate to
Thanksgiving. The law had been re-
discovered and returned to its place
of power and influence among the He
brew people. The reading of 1t showed
them in what they had fallen short.
1t showed them what God desired and
planned for them. Their consciousness
of shortcoming was manifested in their
sadness, but the divine messenger told
them that this was not pleasing to God
but rather that they were to go their
way and eat the fat, and drink the
sweet and send portions unto him for
whom there was nothing prepared, for
the joy of the Lord was their strength.
There is often a mistaken idea that
nothing is religious that is not solemn.
Christianity has lost much of the ele-
ment of the joy of feasting and re-
joicing as a recognition of divine favor.
1t is looked upon by many with dis
favor, a result of secret or open ascot
icism; but there is a holy joyous feast
even as there is a holy joyous fast, and
if we will see things right there is
more true religion in joy and gladness
than in sorrow and sadness; more true
religion in a smile and a laugh than
in ten thousand long solemn faces.
Historically in out text this time was
known as the feast of tabernacles ano
was most joyously observed.
Thanksgiving day ante-dates every
other of our national festivals and in
spirit and aim is different. The true
idea of the day is gratitude to God for
his manifold goodness; his constant
care; his infinite mercy to US individ-
ually and as a nation.
Our own moral weaknesses are re-
vealed in easy divorces, lavish expen-
diture, material development; for it's
own sake as index fingers they point
ominously the wrong way. Our prog
ress is more wonderful than the story
of Aladdin's lamp. The wealth of the
old world was the accumulation of
centuries. Ninety-four per cent of ours
is gotten since 1910 and we are increas-
ing at the rate of $7,0OO,O0O per day
The spirit of gain and worldlness has
possession of us as a people. We are
faced with the question. Is our life
enlarging or only becoming more COM
pleX? The Phoenicians made the al
phabet and used it for contracts deeds
and bills of lading. The Greeks got it
from them and used it to write poetry,
literature and philosophy. The He
brews used their alphabet for the pur-
pose of religion and the giving of re-
demption to the world. They had seen
God, his plan and his purpose To
what purpose is our gain and position
as a nation? The text reminds us that
the fat and the sweet and the portions
which are to be sent away are to be
holy unto the Lord. Do we not look as
a people chiefly upon our gains as be-
longing to ourselves, for ourselves and
not for the Lords sake?
I'VE cannot overlook the fact that the
haste to be rich has ruined many. Men
matter about the method. 1t is this
insidious temptation that opens the
door for graft. Graft is like plague
that breaks out in many centers The
plague oenters of graft are very nu-
merous, but In this country we have
one great privilege. When thing be-
comes absolutely unbearable the peo-
pie can and Will rise and throw II off.
The free ballot box is one of our finest
assets Philadelphia has just exer-
cised its right. Along with graft should
be mentioned private greed The case
of John #. Wallace is i'm point. He ac-
cepted the position of chief engineer
of the work upon the Panama canal
at salary of $25.0O0 per year. but "A
temptation to a salary of $4,000 or
100000 a year made him forget any
duty to the nation or the responsible
ity of a public trust. This Is not a
solitary instance. Names and amount :