Cheyenne record., 1917-11-22
AND SHALL WE YET
THANK HIM?

ICOdu CuStO0 anu ICOtu Tile luucT prOupt
inGs of the spirit, we are wont to lift
grateful hearts to rnerciful and boun-
tiful Creator in thanks and gratitude
for His dealing with US during the year
that is past.
And shall we yet thank him' Let
us see.
AT this same season one short year
ago we thanked Him from full hearts
that He had kept us from madness that
was devastating our kinsman across
the waters. But today we have beaten
the pruning hook into sword, and
from ocean to ocean the tramp OF arm
ed forces resounds.
In view OF the staggering issues with
which our people are face to face, are
We to content ourselves with thanking
an all-poverful God for life and health
and plenty plenty? Are we
to look no further than the mere crea-
ture comforts with which He has so
bountifully showered us?
Some may answer, For what else
should we thank him? Has not the mad
ness fallen on us too? Are not or
young men thronging to the sacrifice,
and art not our wives and mothers
and sisters and brothers and fathers,
with bleeding hearts, helping them on
their way3"
Again, let US see.
A century and half has flown since
q band Of consecrated men, with vision
that reached out far into the future,
determined that on this, ourloved soil,
should be reared an edifice such as the
world had never before witnessed--a
nation wherein should reign that i'm
mortal trinity of human beatitudes,
Freedom, Equality, Justice. To this
they dedicated unseltish lives, for this
they fought, and for this they died.
But their lives and their deaths and
their unsellish sacrifices prevailed, and
today that ediilce stands the wonder of
.earth-a land grounded and built on
the eternal principles that guarantee
to one and all the right to ''life, liber-
ty and the pursuit of happiness.
But these benficient principles are
all-prevailing. In other lands are
forces that would set them at naught
and make of their advocates, serfs and
vassals. 1t is with these forces that
we are ut variance, as were our fathers
before us.
Can we, then, thank an All-Fatlier
tance of Freedom that we must now de
fepd with our lives and our all?
Let us suppose that ourhearts could
not feel this grat:tude-what then?
Suppose us. people, descended from
heroes with whom the glorious vision
of free earth outweighed any thought
of self-we, the children of those he.
roes, willing, like Esau of old, to bar
ter our glorious heritage for mess of
the pottage of ease; willing to submit
to degradation, SO our selfish enjoy
ment of the creature, comforts. be not
interfered with.
But what red-blooded American
could entertain the thought?
People of America, let us raise one
mighty shout of gratitude to Almighty
God thai when the hour of OUR test
ing ca.ne, it found in us hearts that
pulsate0 with that same red rich blood
that in days agone fertilized and made
sacred taAe soil tliat nurtured us. Let
us give thanks that the spirit OF rs is
still the mighty force in American life.
Let Us give thanks that our hearts Gun
choose rightly between present ease
and future glory. Let us give thanks
that wi,cu the hour of our trial came,
it found Ls worthy to call ourselves
sons of our fathers. Let us pour out
our hcayts in gratitude that upon these
hearts has been indelibly engraved the
immutab,e DEGREES of an ali-wise God,
DEGREES that would make of this, his
Rlorions world, u haven Of safety ior
every immortal soul.
And ~ Willingness without oppoitu-
nifty Is hut u negative virtue, let us
give thanks that, when His plans for
the great uplift of mankind needed
-champiuns, He found Us worthy instru
ments upon whom to lay His hand.
For this, thy greatest of all 4,ercies
that hou hast found us worthy
Father above, we would most hunlbiy
thank ,:~e.