The record. [volume] (St. Maries, Idaho) 1913-1918, 1917-12-04

W ~ AhNt NNA Atu~l OF nankc-
giving is none other than the an
cient Jewish Feast of Ingather-
ing, and tho our president now
issues the yearly proclamation;
yet in the first instances it was
Moses who commanded the OBJ
servance of this festival.
BY recalling this fact we link
ourselves with the sublime past.
We connect our nation with
the nation through which God
revealed Himself to the world.
We lift the day out of mere
local or national limitations, and
we prove that we too are the
children of Abraham, only in that
high and spiritual sense by
which we are all of the household
of Faith.
Just as Easter has entered into
and with its divine light trans
figured the feast of the Passover,
SO does Thanksgiving illumine
and glorify the Feast of Ingath-
ering, thus making one of the old
and the new. and demonstrating
the essential unity of the pur-
poses of God throughout all gen.
erations.
Our great national festival we
are prone to speak of as "Inde-
pendence Day" when we cele-
brate our emancipation from all
foreign Interference and restraint
but Thanksgiving Day means just
the opposite of this; for it brings
to us the recognition of depen-
dence and our utter helplessncss
unless God interferes in our be
half
For of what use are our treas
ures of gold and silver. our vast,
almost unlimited possessions on
land and sea, our skill and talent
.of industry, unless lie blesses the
labors of our hands and causes
the earth to bring forth plenti-
fully?
Should He withhold the early
and the later rain; should He
refuse the life-giVing sun for a
single season; should he with
draw his energies from the seeds
planted i'm the springliMe. hun
ger, desolation, famine, and death
would come upon us i'm all their
horror, and our world would be
an awful charnal house.
And yet this is the very thing
which we are most apt to forget.
Because we can mine coal, and
melt iron, and make brick, and
build houses, and weave cloth,
and fashion raiment, we think we
are able to provide for ourselves,
and yet every loaf of bread that
is brought to our tables is as
much a gift from God as day and
night, summer and winter, etc
Possibly there is no other ma
tion in the whole Christian
world to whom this lesson is Of
more Importance or more neces-
sary than to our own.
The marvellous prosperity
which has attended us from the
very beginning; the acquisition
of territory on all sides, unit
now we practically dominate a
continent; the discovery of inn
lmense mineral wealth of which
we had not even dreamed; the
extraordinary fertility of our sol
and the variety of our climate
resulting in supplies of every
imaginable type; tne upbuildinG
Ct great cities and the establish
ment of a worldwide commerce
the control which we have OBJ.
tanned of almost every agency o
material agency apd force-al
these have affected the nationa
character and life to an exten
deeper and stronger than mos
tof us are aware, and it is will
the spirit of the Babylonian kinl
that we proudly say, rs not thi
the great Babylon which I hav,
lbuilded?"
How, then, can we better i'm
prove the Thanksgiving festiva
than to gratefully recall the fac
that all our help is from God
that He alone is the author o
our prosperity, that what we ar
az q, nation is through his lovin
kindness and tender mercy, an