Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-11-18
TREATMENT IN
THANKSGIVING

every earnest person is out with
some program or recommendation as
to what Is needed, there is one piece
OF advice that seems to be very rare.
ly given And yet it Is one which
In the early days OF Christianity was
always put to the fore and insisted
on with such regularity that it is
hard to see why in our day it is sell
dom emphasized. We hear a great
deal about nerves, and mind cure, and
psychotheraphy Of all sorts, untli we
get to thinking that those first Chris
tians never really got hold of the
things that trouble us most And we
have heard so often the prescriptions
they gave for rundown spiritual lives
that we feel we need something more
modern. But one of the ingredients
that scarcely ever failed to find it's
way into their prescriptions was
Thanksgiving. They believed that
other reason than that this element
in life had fallen to low proportions
Yet how often have we heard any
body, in giving diagnosis of a brok
en- down life. say to another: \ hat
you need is a course OF treatment in
thanksgiving"
One OF the most potent factors in
making people neglect their Bibles is
that they come to feel that the writ
ers were just saying things which
tnpV faIt thnV Niphf tn
OF us are never particularly helped
by hearing anybody who simply says
what he thinks he ought to say. But
a good robust conviction always helps
US. and we shall never get the Bible
back for the vital thing it is until we
realize that in it men are not saying
what they felt they ought to, but
rather what they were driven to say
by their own experience
Probably everybody recognizes the
general duty of Thanksgiving, but
general duties are just the ones that
We leave to chance. Not until the
habit of gratitude and recognition be-
come definite and particular duty are
we likely to do anything about it.
We are vlgilant enough in our NOR
al lives Oftentimes, and we pray
enough. and we are very earnest; and
yet for all that we often feel that
something Is wrong, something is
missing. We watch, but we do not
do it with thanksgiving. We watch
rather with anxiety, complaint and
sLrain. We let our requests be made
known to God, but not with thanks
giving. We think we can put that in
at any time. We always mean to add
that element some time, but do not do
because it seems to most of us rather
an adornment of prayer than one OF
prayers most invigorating elements.
Or we think thanksgiving Will come
OF itself when the pressure OF happi-
ness grows strong enough. Or we
fall into that old common swindle OF
the spontaneous, and think that, to be
sincere, Thanksgiving ought to spring
up all OF itself There Is just the mis-
take. 1t is not a spontaneous thing.
life, 1t is something to be worked
over and practiced II Paul had felt
that it was an automatic thing which
took care of itself, II he had regarded
1t as a sort of eXuberance which
would burst up out of ones life when
ever circumstances were suitable to
It, we may be sure he would not have
taken such pains to put 1t in every
where. and insist upon 1t and urge it.
One SUSPECTS that there was some
thing deeply photographic in his
constant insistence on this point, and
that Paul was one who would soon
have sunk down into a complaining
creature If he had not taken pains
with this faculty, which dies out In
so many of us just because we are
that demand painstaking.
In our day we try to meet the
worlds needs by answering each one
OF its complaints. But what is really
most dangerous to men Is not that
some of their complaints should be
neglected, but that they should fall
into habit of comparing that fastens
upon them until it becomes inveter-
ate, constitutional and inculablet And
that Is just the condition into which
many lives fall len thousand com
plants may be satisfied, but things
be no better for it, while we go on
believing that the next satisfaction
will be final. Alas, it never is. Some
things else is needed; and only hard
work, and deliberate attention, and
prolonged course Of treatment, will
make operative our lives that great
quality of gratitude with all it's illum-
mating power. One OF our greatest
perils Is that the prevailing type OF
the Christian life shall get to be like
that mood in which John Foster said
most evangelical divines 100 years
ago ended their days, "a mood OF
gently complaining melancholy"
What better description OF the pre-
vailing tone OF the New Testament
could we give than to say 1t is the
exact opposite Of that?
But when there Is some imperative
and unfultilled need In our life, and