Norwich bulletin., 1914-11-27
UNION THANKSGIVING SERVICES
Held Trinity Episcopal and Broadway Congregational Churches-Collectons Taken for Relief Fund for the Belsians and the United Workers-Reasons for Thank fuIness Pointed Out.

1 At union Thanksgiving services which were held Thursday morning at Il o'clock at Trinity Episcopal church I and at Broadway Congregational church there were congregations of good proportions.
 At Trinity Church.
 At Trinity church, with which Christ I Episcopal church united, the sermon was by Rev. R. R. Graham, rector of | Christ church. The collection at the service was for the fund for the suf- ! ferers in Belgium through the war. | Rev. MT. Graham delivered a force ful sermon from the text Cor, Sd l chapter. 9th verse. Ye are Gods hus- 1 bandry. The service was conducted l by Archdeacon J. Eldred Brown, the Graham spoke in part aS follows: We are met here this morning to of fer Up thanksgiving to God for the various blessings which We, and more joy.
 Clearly then our service is largely 1 meaningless, hardly of any more than. an empty form, unless God has actual the world, for 1t is absurd to offer thanks to a blind form which is in some purely mechanical, innpersonal way working out the destiny of the universe.
 l as believer in God speak to you who acknowledge His rulership and | recognize that He and His purposes must be taken into consideration in our attempts to understand the events | of life.
 | Not UnnindfuI of Blessings.
 We are not, I trust, unmindfuI of 1 the manifold blessings which have been granted to us during the past year, but am sure the dominant l thought in our minds today is thank l fulness for the peace we enjoy while Il so much of the rest of the world is engaged in deadly strife. As we com Il pare Europe of today with our own | peaceful land the awful contrast pre- sented forces from our lips the cry of I thanksgiving together with prayer that God will save us from the scourge | of war, and in His good time bring | peace among the nations. l The magnitude of the war, with it's T resulting sufferings, is so overwheIm- ing as to check that spirit of self eompiacency which sometimes charac- | terizes our thanksgivings when we contemplate the peculiar blessings we enjoy, humility rather than self-con- 1 gratulation is or at least ought to be day.
 Though we may attribute our non involvement in this almost worldwide war partly to our geographical posi- | ton and partly to the foresight of those who guided this country in her early and formative period, as we'll as to the wisdom with which those in authority today have handled the sit- uation; yet offering our thanksgiving 1 to God as the real and effective source of all these blessings we commit our selves to the position that 1t is only in so far as we have been carrying out
 the will of God that we have in any way deserved these blessings or can expect to enjoy them in the future.
 Reasons That Are Given. I RUt yYa ara told haf x,,o q. inevitable, not simply because the seeds of rivalry discord, fear and ha- ! tired soWn for so many years must at
 last bring forth their fruits. but be-
 cause this, like every war on a great
 scale, is only part of the wide, evo-
 iuttonary, cosnnic struggle for exist
 ence which is and has been ceaselessly going on. and which Is one of the chief
 means whereby the world and human l society has reached it's present state of development. Therefore, it is use | less to ask who or what is to blame for 1 the war, and mere folly to attribute
 any part of this blame to any individ- l uaIS or classes for what are they in . the mighty, age-long sweep of evolu- honaFy development.
 Carrying out this idea still further
 we are told that not alone was this
 present war inevitable but that we
 must look forward to a constant series , of similar or perhaps vaster wars in
 the future. Long ago Plato said: "A1l
 states are in perpetual war with all 5 For that which we call peace is nc . more than merely a name, whilst in reality nature has set all communi- l ties in an unproclaimed but everlast- 3 ing War with each other"
 Modern Teaching.
 Modern evolutionary teaching, of a
 certain kind, has given the stamp O:
 approval to this theory; but 1t recog-
 ntzes this state of perpetual war not
 simply as fact but as an inevitable , law of nature.
 The only peace, then, is the peace oi exhaustion, reeuperation or caution . The pack Of wolves who have TUT . down their prey after a hard chase
 are at peace with the rest of the jun
 gle while they are tired and full fed ? but as soon as hunger compels they
 will go forth again, if indeed in the
 meantime self defense does not cal upon them to fight. So the nations ot the world will be at peace with eacf
 other only while they lack the Vigor ol
 strength to go forth to the attack
 Peace is weakness or cowardly cun-
 ming, for the strong nation must fgh for it's life,
 Furthermore. we are taught that this
 ceaseless warfare is not only inevita. ble but right, for 1t is a part of the
 great struggle for existence. The gos,
 pei of this theory, the only cheering
 note in this dirge of pain, suffering
 and struggle which ceaselessiy arises
 Is that it is a struggle from which re-
 sults the survival of the fittest, anG that therefore the final result is al. ways for the hetferment of tho world Now such an explanation of exist.
 ing conditions may have an element ot
 truth in it; the blood that is being
 shed on the battlehelds of Europe may
 be poured forth in accordance witf
 that law of nature which leads one
 animal to fight against another oi
 even the plant to thrust aside a sirni lar plant in order that it may have it.
 place in the sun, though we must re
 member that there are social animal.
 that do not habitually wage war witt
 each other.
 Do Not Take God Into Account.
 What I want to impress on you thii
 morning is that all such explanations when, regarded as being full and com plete, are necessarily and essential, N goddess inasmuch as they only talk,
 into account the great material forces of the universe, and do not allow any or at least an effective. place to thosi spiritual forces which must be of vas
 if not paramount importance on tn, supposition that God who is spirit i