Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1909-12-02
A VERY SUCCESSFUL
INNOVATION
IN HOLDING THE THANKSGIVING
SERVICE, IN THE EVENING
The Large Audience Present Were
Instructed and Entertained
By Sermon and Music

The Union Thanksgiving Service at
the Presbyterian church in Audubon ON
Thursday evening was a pleasing and
profitable occasion. There was fine
audience whose presence gave sanction
| to the innovation of holding the service
in the evening instead of the morning,
The people had their feast of good things,
I visited and rested i'm the afternoon
and in the evening had both time and
inclination To attend and enjoy a reli-
gious service OF praise and Thanksgiving
to Almighty God Rev A. b. Miller,
of the Presbyterian church, presided;
the Rev Schlesselman, OF the Evangel-
cal church, read the scripture; and Rev.
j. p. Morley, of the Methodist church,
preached the sermon "A choir composed
of singers from the different churches
| furnished good music and +. H. Adams
played The Last Rose of Summer ON
the flute in a very entertaining manner.
Doctor Morley appeared for the first
time before union service i'm Audubon
and we are but expressing the general
sentiment of those who heard him when
we say that he delivered dignified
scholarly and practical discourse, suita-
! BILE to the occasion and pleasing and
| helpful to the audience.
1 The text announced was part of the
| Twentieth Verse of the One Hundred
| Forty seventh Psalm He hath not
| death so with any nation, After u
brief exposition of the text and q review
7 of the Thanksgiving custom which he
linked with tho Hebrew feast or the
ingathering then the speaker proceeded
in part as follows: Israel had been
blessed above all the nations of the earth.
The declaration of the Psalmist was
strictly true. And yet of our nation to.
day it is true even in greater measure
We are now the chosen people of God.
, The spiritual leadership of the race has
| been transferred TO these western SHORES
| We are to consider how God hath blest
MS above all other nations. America
was providentially blest i'm the time
of her discovery. That time was dated
to correspond with the breaking away
of the dark ages i'm Europe, and with
the revival of learning and spiritual re-
ligion. And to this land thus kept to the
fullness of time God brought our fore
fathers, apeople selected because of their
fidelity TO conscience and to God. And
here in this land of promise he provided
u rich profusion of the bounties of nature
Onr wealth of forest and field and mine
is unsurpassed While one half of the
race goes TO bed hungry every night,
and while some of the most prosperous
people are never more than six weeks
from famine, SO diversified are our pro
ducts that every port on earth might he
closed against rs and we should feel no
want.
And God gave us the tutelage of Eng\
land and put the impress Of her juris-
prudence upon all our institutions and
yet has permitted us to find our separate
destiny as u world power among the
nations. And He is using tins His cho-
sen people and is working His purposes
! through MS today Us truly as he did in
the days of Moses And He is using us
in greater way even as He desired to
use Israel for the blessing of humanity.
Since America became world power
something more than pure selfishness has
entered into international diplomacy.
And there are blessings personal and
J that touch every life here in our favored
land. Above all temporal blessings is
/ the blessing of opportunity. Ones sta
ton in life here is not determined by
the accident Of birth. A boy from driv-