Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1911-11-14

/ RtA lIV|tN IN
THANKSGIVING
In this day when the world is full
OF counsel Of every kind and nearly
every earnest person is out witt
some program or recommendation az
to what is needed, there is one piece
of advice that seems to be very rare
8ly 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 il 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. until we
get to thinking that those first Chris
tians never really got hold OF the
things that trouble us most. And we
have heard 80 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 its
way into their prescriptions was
Thanksgiving. They believed that
many were weak and sickly for no
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 brok-
en- down life, say to another: What
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
erss were just saying things which
they felt they ought to say; and most
Of us are never particularly helped
by hearing anybody who simply says
what he thinks he ought to say. But
q good robust conviction always helps
us, and we shall never get the Bible
back for the vital thing 1t is until we
realize that in 1t 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 yigilant 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 1t with thanksgiving. We watch
rather with anxiety, complaint and
strain. 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 rot do
it in the present difficulty or stress
because It seems to most Of US rather
an adjournment OF prayer than one OF
prayers most inyigorating 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 q spontaneous thing.
Like the other noblest qualities OF
life. It is something to be worked
over and practiced. II Paul had felt
that it was an automatic thing which
took care OF itself, If he had regarded
it as sort of exuberance which
would burst up out OF ones life when
ever circumstances were suitable TO
1t, we may be SIRE he would not have
taken such pains to put il in every
where, and insist upon 1t and urge It
One suspects that there was some.
thing deeply autobiographic IN his
constant insistence on this point, ana
that Paul was one who would soon
have sunk down into complaining
creature II he had not taken pains
with this faculty, which dies out in
so many OF us Just because we are
not aware that it is one OF the things
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 incurable. And
that ia just the condition into which
many lives fall. len thousand com
plants may be satisfied, but things
be no better for Il, while we go on
believing that the next satisfaction
win be final. Alas, 1t never ID. Some
things else II needed; and only hard
work, and deliberate attention, and
. prolonged course OF treatment. viii
make operative our lives that great
quality OF gratitude with all its Hum
mating power. One Of our greatest
perils ID that the prevailing type Of