Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1907-01-04
TIE THANKSGIVING TIME.
By Rev. D. F. Fo1

In the Yellowstone National Park is
the famous "Old Faithful" geyser.
Year in and year out, winter and sum-
mer, day and night, in cold and in
heat, in sunshine and in storm, every
seventy minutes "Old Faithful" sends
up its glorious shaft of crystal, each
drop of which unravels a rainbow.
We now turn from Old Faithful to
Old Grateful-Thanksgv Day. Let
us fill our hearts UP with the glory of
the day. We need to cultivate and
cherish the deep religion of a thankful
heart. Having only one life to live, we
owe 1t to our friends to make it cheer
ful and glad Not infrequently Thanks
giving Day Is abused. Men dwell on
the discouraging aspects of our ma
tiOnal life. These, on occasion, every
lover of his country must consider, but
on this day we are to praise God for
his goodness and for his wonderful
works to the children of men. We are
to dwell on the things for which we
are to be thankful Not to do this is
to become pessimistic, and a pessimist
is man who, when he has the choice
of two evils, takes both. Now let us
consider the three kinds of benefits for
which we as a people should be pro-
foundly grateful to Almighty God.
Blessings Personal.
A living torch and dead coal start
ed out into the world to see what it
was like. The torch came back with
smiling face and reported that all was
brightness and beauty. The coal, with
doleful countenance and sepulchral
tone, said he found the world black
and cheerless everywhere. If for moth
ing else, then, thank God for life. In
this age of sounding hammers, with
steam kissing from the rlvets, we need
to remember that the most wonder
full thing is not dynamo or an auto
mobile, but man, and a mans life does
not depend so much upon what he has
as upon what he is. Your house may
be small, but it may be home, for
home is not spelled house. 1t is the
Inward disposition rather than the out
ward state that determines our happi-
ness. You may have few servants in
your house, possibly none at all What
of it? The man who lives in the large
house can at best occupy but one or
two rooms, the rest are occupied by
the servants; and for the man who
runs it, it may not be home at all,
and perhaps is little better than a
barracks.
Look about in your modest little
home. Count your blessings. Look at
the top Of your dining table; a hun
dred summers of sunshine are hidden
away in that oak table top. LOOK at
the rug on your floor; indigo from In
dia, cochineal from Mexico, yellow
from Madagascar and black from
Nicaragua. Look at the tabecloth of
snowy whiteness made from fax that
grew in Ireland, and the dishes from
Dresden kiln. See the pearly bread
made from Minnesota flour. Behold
the hlgh-breasted, brown-baked bird
from the barnyard whom your farmer
friend has been feeding on corn and
grasshoppers for the past nine months.
Think of that mince pie, the apples
from New York, the meat from Texas
and the raislns from sunny California.
Think of the celery from Michigan, the
figs from Sicily, the dates from Ara.
bia and the coffee from Brazil. Look
into the faces of your children, and re-
membering those who love and encour
age y u, be thankful for the personal
blessings of life, and eat your Thanks
giving dinner with gladness and praise
to God.
blessings National.
Our country is the best part of tn,
globe. No nation on the face of th,
earth possesses such O territory. Thinl
of its illmitable vastness, It's ricl
stores, boundless prairles. stately rlv
ers, deep forests, great lakes, higl
mountains-everything on an immens
scale. 1t is as Mr.. Gladstone affirmed
-'the natural base for the greatest ma
tion Of the world" II a wall wer
built around our country the only peo
pie to suffer would be those on tn
outside. And we are only beginnin
to develop our resources.
This past year we have taken fros
our mines billion dollars In gold, an
that Is only handful of newsboy,
nickels compared to the total output o
our wealth. The eighteen million ba!
rels of flour that have been turned ou
from our mills. If placed end to ent
would reach to Liverpool and back. w
have woven cloth enough to reac
twenty times around the world an
give every man and boy In the countr
a suit of clothes besides. Our shaft
never raised so much coal, our corr
Aolda hnra norar hoati 90 xrolIour ~,