The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-11-28


the Lord for he is
kUtT6o DIlseeTIu good; for his mercy
RkeRxnksSsSsEB RkeRxnkssSsnsSsss.EgB endureth forever"-
Psalm evil 1.
Thanksgiving Day appeals to ali of
us, and we are glad that the Pilgrim
Fathers long years ago started the
custom. They placed 1t at the end of
the harvest and In recognition ofs the
same The keeping of such q day ap-
peals to all civilized mankind in a con-
siderable degree, because our Great
Creator so organized us that the quail
ity of reverence, of worship, lies prom
inently on. the top Of our heads. The
man or woman, rich or poor, educated
or ignorant, bond or free, who has not
this organ of veneration developed in
considerable measure cannot be appre-
ciative and deferential toward his Gre
ator, and hence would not enjoy
Thanksgiving day. We are glad that
these are comparatively few. We are
glad to suppose that the majority Of
this great nation of civilization looked
up to God with grateful hearts and
rendered him thanks for blessings
manifested. u.3u.
Hindranees to True Reverence.
Nevertheless, the numbers increase
yearly of those who are losing their
reverence for the God of the Bible and
vaguely turning towards God of Ma
ture, Of whom they profess to know
comparatively little. These irreverent
ha nh al M
not generally the most ignorant of our
race, nor the least favored in temporal
mercies and blessings. Among them
are many learned, wealthy. influential.
Their condition is well represented by
that Of a young woman who. called at
my study recently. In substance she
said, II have lost my God. | am un-
happy. l am hoping that you will be
able to assist me In finding him
again" Thank God we were able TO
assist her, and now she is able to give
thanks to God in all sincerity.
1 am not speaking to the irreverent
in this audience, nor to those of this
class in my larger audience of millions
all over the world, to whom | speak
through the public press. / am speak
ing to others who, while not yet fully
in the faith, are still disposed to
give thanks. l speak to these be-
cause l realize that each day Is
bringing TO the world greater inteli.
gence, more Independent thoughtful
ness, in wider use of reason.
speak because my experience teaches
that unless these be fully armed with
The Truth and awakened TO independ-
ent thought, they are almost certain TO
fall into unbelief-Evolution, Higher
Criticism, and mere form of godli-
ness. which denies the real power
thereof
The Truth Shall Make You Free.
The Great Teacher prayed for his
followers, "Sanctify them through thy
Truth; thy Word is Truth John xvii,
10. To be forearmed with the Truth .
Is to be safeguarded against the error
To be ignorant of the Truth is to fall
prey to the error-especially in this
"evil day." when "a thousand shall
fall at thy side and ten thousand at
difficulty with us has been that many
have supposed that the conversion OF
the world and its sanctlfcation can be
better accomplished by misrepresenta-
tion of Divine Character and Justice.
Unconsciously we have learned to
twist and interpret our Bibles to Ut
the erroneous creeds which were hand
ed to us by our well-meaning fore
fathers. The Day Of Judgment upon
these false creeds Is upon us. I'm
less we learn that they do not prop
erly interpret the Bible, we will re-
ject the Bible when we reject the
creeds--and that be very soon
for all thinking people, ''ro the Law
and to the testimony; II they speak not
according to this Word, It is because
there Is no lightiR them Qsaiah viii,
2O.
Causes For lnsratitude.
Come let us reason together saith
the Lordw II our creeds tell us truly
that we were all born damned. either
20 Purgatory or TO eternal torment,
should we give thanks on this ac-
count? If our creeds tell truly that
nm elect handful Of saints will escape
the torture. how do we know wheth-
er or not we belong TO that elect hand
ful2 Have we sufficient information
on this subject to give thanks there
for? If our creeds tell truly that near
ly all the members Of our families,
nearly all Of our neighbors and friends,
being insanity, not 'sanctified in
Christ Jesus" not followers in the
footsteps OF Jesus, not OF those "who
walk not after the flesh, but after the
spirit"-these all, except mere hand
ful. are doomed TO more horrible tor
ture than the worst earthly sufferings
we could possibly imagine for them,
and are doomed TO these for centuries
In Purgatory, according TO the Catho-
lie; or for all eternity, according to
our Protestant theories, can we hon
sstiy thank God for any OF these con-
sltions. II we believe them TO be true7
cau we worship in spirit ahd fl
ruth" a Creator who would make
mch an atroeious planl And could
we respect hia honesty If he labelled