Newark post., 1910-11-23

But to my mlnd, though | am native
And to the manner born, it is GUS
tom
More honor'd in the breach than thu
observance"
And Hamlets comment on the
Kings observance does not inaptly
apply to many of us in our recogni
ton of what has become the national
day of Thanksgiving Pessimistic as
it may appear, we are not far wrong
when we say that in our rush for ma
terial gains and progress, that custom
has dulled our natures. When Hora
ito remarked that it made grave max
ing property On easiness,' Hamlet
wisely answered, Its cen so; the
hand of little employment hath the
daintier sense SO today Thanks
giving has become, through custom,
merely National holiday. 1t has
been proven time and again that the
truest and noblest days OF thanks have
been those when communities and ma
tions bowed in sacred recognition OF
Higher Power, such as on that bleak
winters morn at Plymouth or when
Lincoln in 62 asked the nation to bow
its head in prayer
Contradictory to seeming popular
belief, Thanksgiving is not religious
rite for it first became a National day
from the pen of the man of no stated
form of creed. 1t came not in recogni
ton of no saint, from no clerical edict,
but from the pen Oh hearts dictation
OF that humble master mGn-Abraham
Lincoln Thanksgiving day is not,
Presbyterian nor an Episcopaian ser
vice-it is in recognition of no creed's
God. 1t is an American institution,
and more-it is mans recognition Of
the mercy and goodness OF a Higher
Power, calling it whatsoever he may.
1t is most fitting, of course that
our churches (most OF them) due
honor, and i'll congregation assembled,
with bo.ted heads attempt to give
thanks for goodness bestowed. But
that bars not the man outside the
church to stroll out in the crisp No
yember air, through the fields and i'll
the wood, those first temples. and to
there commune and reverently thank
his God-and too-reconsecrate him
self for better service to State and
man. He may have flung convention
and sham to the WINS, il he has
c.asped naked truth to his heart and
dared express it, Thanksgiving Day is
his day, too.
Thank sgiving cannot be brought
about by President or Governor.
1t is in its true sense. not a Procla-
nation, it is condition of the heart.
1t is not day, it is an attitude o. the
mind. And days OF peace and plenty,
harmony and prosperity, are not con-
ducive to contrition. We are rather
inclined in times such as these--(and
we are happy and prosperous, few
news editors to the contrary)-to con-
graduate ourselves rather than be
thankful to Nature. 1t is in time of
stress, times that try mems souls
that we as men and nation look to a
Higher Source,
AS this day approaches, no people
have greater cause for a National
Thanksgiving than America. Great
in her na:ural and artificial wealth,
glorious in her achievements and man
hood, magnificent in her past, facing
the greatest problems of ali time, we
have good cause, and lust, to give
thanks.
AS Nation. as State and as men, let
us give recognition for the ~aSt honor
for the present and most OF all
thank God for the problems OF tomor-
row--and may we race them with man
hood-strong and true, in the spirit of
the one who wrote our first Thanks
giving Proclamation.