Norwich bulletin., 1909-11-26

T CII6
 city have united for the Thanksgiving l service, but this year all the churches
 except where services are always held | were invited to unite, and the service was held in the Central Baptist church.
 Seated on the platform with the pas l tor, Rev. P. C. Wright, were Rev. Dr. | $. H. Howe, Rev. G. Fl. Ewing, Rev. | this city, and Rev. II. B. Rankin of l Noank, all of whom took part in the | service, by prayer, scripture reading | or benediction.
 l The sermon was preached by the
 Rev. P. c. Wright who explained that | Rev. M. $. Kaufman, who had intend- | ed to take part in the service, had been called away. Rev. Mir. Wright took his | text from David's Psalm. Give Thanks Unto the Lord" and said that the Lord
 was uppermost in David's mind all the time, and his writings and utterances hshow it.
 It was during the early days that we first heard of the birth of the thankful spirit It was after the first harvest by the settlers that Thanksgiving was | first inaugurated, and it was an occa- sional observance, but gradually be- came a custom, and is now an annual observance by national proclamation. In the first place it was strictly re- ligjous observance by a religious body. AD llOW luC .cAQNllbAOAcl LCdbhAO OA home gatherings, and a thanksgiving
 which touches experiences in all things.
 We. came to 1t not only with the
 thought of the blessings, but there are
 the depresSions and hardships. With
 the past year of depression, the corrup-
 tion and mine diss sters can we come
 to this season with a true spirit of
 Thanksgiving? We come to it with a
 broader view than when it was first
 started, and with the totality of the
 years experience. The founders of the
 custom did not do what they did be- cause they thought they ought to. They founded 1t on eternal heritage and they
 did it because they were possessed by
 the great conviction laid upon the
 eternal thing out of a conviction of their God. God was behind and over their lives. With them the crops didn't depend upon the farming, it was the work of God. God wasn't a force or influence. but being with them. Growing out of that conviction, Thanksgiving was so invigorating that it sought expression and found it in the yearly observance.
 Many of us in following the tempo rary lives that we do should follow the Psalmist, and keep our eyes on God, and it will tend to have a balancing effect and give us an anchorage. If we would realize that God is back of every purpose we would feel less the strain and anxiety. We need the proper per spective of God moving men to right eousness. Gods help gives is courage in life's battles.
 We may be thankful today, for God is not changed. The same God who was Dayids God is our God. We are thankful to God for the splendid bless ings given to us recently, for the Vls- ions of larger things and fellowship in let n6 ha e answered our prayer and made him. self more real. We are thankful for the blessings of the past year and that no great calamity has come to us as a nation, and that while wrong exists, vet the great mass of the people are moving on to righteousness. ~
 Episcopal Service.
 Christ and Trinity Episcopal church. es united on Thursday morning for a Thanksgiving service, which was held at 1030 o'clock at Christ church. The rectors of the two churches, Rev. Neil son Poe Carey and Archdeacon J. FL dred Brown, conducted the service, and the sermon was by Archdeacon Brown
 In an able discourse from the text Psalm 92, 1: It is good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, o Most High, he said in part that it is the sorrows rather than the joys that make the deeper impression, so occupying dis proportionate place in our picture Of life but events should be viewed as part of the whole plan, and each deal ing of God with men has its position in the sum total, although at times we may not b able to see how the parts fit. Gods dealing with men has for it's supreme end the moral welfare of man and even through their calamities men are brought to think of God and come nearer in spirit to him. How fre- quently it may be observed that the things most blessed in the result have arisen out of severe calamity.
 Perhaps one of the chief causes of mans lack of gratitude to God is be- cause he does not stop to consider and the righteousness of Gods laws, re- us that honesty is the best policy, that right is might that right makes might, and that right comes right By memory and reflection we see also the divine mercy of God talk ing shape as a discipline. A thankful spirit guards against forgetting whence the blessings flow, softens and sweet ems the disposition, helps us to see God in everything, and inspires in us a warmth and zeal for social causes and enterprises, ripening and ennobling the lives which it touches.
 The Psalmist says that praise is no private thing. If the man is sincere he feels the impulse to say so to some body. Genuine praise is less a duty than a ministry, for true praise never fails to help somebody. Gods mercies and beneficenceS to us are for the pur- pose of making us merciful and bene- fcent Therefore they ought to be ac- by liberal gifts and hearts open to other in sympathetic express sions. Thanksgiving reminds us that