The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-12-01
THE FINER CAUSES
FOR THANKSGIVING
Were Enumerated By Rev. J. B. Reardon
at Union Service Held at Congrega-
tional Church Wednesday
Evening.

Evening.
The union Thanksgiving services were
held Wednesday evening at the Congrega- a.
tional church with five ministers on the
platform representing as many denom-
nations. DR.. j. w. Barnett OF the Con-
gregational church was in charge of the
meeting. The service was opened with
music and continued with the reading OF
the governors Thanksgiving proclama-
tion by Rev. Edgar Grassland OF the
PRESBYTERIAN church. Rev. b. G. Lipsky
of the Hedding NJ. f. church followed
with scripture reading and Rev. Bert j.
Iehigh, pastor of the Baptist church, OIL
fered prayer. The offering taken was
given to the City hospital. After the OIL
fering was received a mixed choir sang
an old anthem, which was followed with
a timely sermon by Rev. j. b. Reardon of
the Universalist society. The services
were closed by DR.. Barnett giving the
benedicton.
The text of the preachers sermon was
taken from the fifth chapter of st. Paul 5
epistle to the Ephesians, verses 1870,
which reads as follows: "Be filed with
the spirit; singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks
always for all things to God, even the
Father"
At the outset Rev. Mr.. Reardon re-
minded his hearers that for nearly 2Oo
years the observance of Thanksgiving,
having its origin with the Pilgrims in
1921. was confined to New England, albeit
as the sons of New England moved south
ward and westward their desire to per-
petuate the holiday prompted them to
make the observance nationwide
Thanksgiving, to be sustained, said the
pa stor. needs to be intelligent. There
must be something deeper than sentiment
about it.
In spite Of the unprecedented world
sorrow at this moment, we need such
day, he continued, to help us escape from
the denial of a supernatural interposltlon
in the affairs OF men. The great prose
writers and poets have not thought that
God was banished or that He voluntarily
withdrew from His works, but II is a
mystery full of sadness that men to-day
retain God in their creed but depose Him
from the throne of their lives. They
would be shocked to be told that they
are atheists or deists, but they daily live
Iatheistically or deistically. 1t is the
tendency OF the world to regard its tenn
poraI needs as more important than IT'S
spiritual And yet we go back to the
birth.time of Thanksgiving and see that
our fathers, whose lives were poorer In
comforts than ours, had feeling sur
passinr ours that they owed all they had
TO God.
The preacher regretted the present.day
tendency that weakens faith and said
that in the midst of the world strife men
who are war. mad seem to have forgotten
the teachings of Christ. He spoke of the
old Jewish festival of the first fruits and
of the spontaneous sentiment responsible
for the festival If the same feeling does
not fiji our souls to-day, he went on, we
ought to restore its brightness by an act
OF the imagination. which will carry us
back to the care and love by which we
are ever blessed We need to summon
ourselves back from things, mechanisms
forces, tendencies, customs and habits
which are leading us away from the high"
er life, and substitute for them those
things which win lead us to the Infinite
Spirit who. if we are sufficiently pure
in heart and sound in head" to know It,
is constantly giving us fresh revelation
of His being, disclosing sources OF graft
tude which should blend heart and mind
in one.
Let us encourage in ourselves the SEN
sibilities of life, the pastor continued
No man is born quite without the power
of receiving impressions from nature and
from human nature, although there are
many who have brought death by neglect
upon their native power. Let us be
thankful during this glad Thanksgiving
season not alone for our country, our
liberties. our churches, schools, homes
and all material blessings but let us be
thankful for the faculty of memory, for
Imagination, for the sense of humor. for
reason, that union of all the faculties,
and for the wondrous sentiment OF love.
A mans work should be made thing OF
religion, for a true religion must always
result in service. We may meet and
speak with God in prayer, we may find
our Master in the service of holy com
munion, but nowhere, | think, shall we
come into the very presence OF God ana
into such perfect communion with the
Master as in honest toll for the good OF
men.
In support of this thought so finely ex-
pressed in Henry Van Dykes poem, The
Toiling of Felix the preacher quoted lib
erallv from some of the more beautiful
passages of the poem. In closing, he said,
1T is because of these gifts, which
ennoble our earthly years and transcend
them. claim us for all that is high and
divine and make it, not duty, but a
privilege and JOY to sing and make
melody in our hearts to the Lord, to give
thanks always for all things to Cod