Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-26
Thanksgiving for gife's Variety
BY BISHOP EDWIN HOLT HUGHES
OF the Methodist Episcopal Church.

TN his drama. The House of Rim
mon," Henry Van Dyke brings the
~ Hebrew maid to the door of the
grievously afflicted Naaman to sing song
Of cheer The sun is rising in splendor.
The author makes the maid true to the
doctrine of her people who saw Gods
work in field and flower and did not falter
in saying that his hand weaved the grace
and beauty Of the sunbeams. She be-
held the opening day as a symbol of the
divine love and sang it thus:
above the edge of dark appear the lances Of
the sun:
Along the mountain ridges clear his rosy heralds
The vapors down the valley go
Like broken armies dark and low.
Look up. my heart. from every hill
In folds of rose and dafodil
The sunrise banners flow.
night.
. welcome little birds that sing the coming In of
For new. and new. and ever new,
The golden bud within the blue:
And every morning seems 10 say:
There's something happy on the WAY.
And God sends love to YOU" "
This sentiment is taught only i'm that
school of faith which declares that God
Il 50 good and so great that he starts
every day along its own new path, bring
ing to us new material blessings. letting
US look into new faces. revealing to us
new phases of truth. opening up to us
new regions of character, and putting be-
fore us new opportunities for work.
Under this view of the divine care even
the Book of Lamentations ceases its
wailing and says of the Lords mercies,
They are new every morning. Instead
Of monotony we see variety: instead Of
occasional benefit the consistency Of
mercy; instead of heartless machinery,
the hand of the loving God.
VNe will do IA &I.:.
for time. 1t is peculiarly appropriate
Tor the Thanksgiving season. If we can
get II into our thought that the divine
mercies are new every morning., the
quality of this holiday will flow forward
over all the days of the year. Let us,
then. fasten the text into our thought by
noting the freshness which at every point
God gives to relieve the lives of men. 1t
is often said that variety is the spice of
life" IL the divine mercies are new every
morning We will find time provided
with gracious variety. If we have not
eyes to see the variety. We shall GER
tainly not have palates to taste the spice
The call bids us open our eyes to the
newness Of the mercies which God in
vests in each new day.
We observe, first, that the divine mer-
cies are ever new and varied at the point
OF material blessings. Thousands of
years ago, ere men had come to any ac-
curacy of astronomical knowledge, they
believed that new sun arose every
morning. 1t was the opinion that when
the setting sun sank behind the hills it
went down to death and never rose again
The next morning a new sun came front
the cloudy depths and took its one-day
journey over the face of the sky They
thought also that a new moon was really
q moon. not the old moon reappearing
but q new moon" started afresh from
the hand of the great Maker Though
wrong from the scientific point Of view
the ancients had a great truth hidden in
their error. Changing their astronomy
into something Of correctness, 1t may be
said that a new world turns daily toward
the sun. The divine hand has moved over
the surface and though the general out
lines may remain the same. God has i'm
parted the tsuches of new variety. New