Middletown transcript., 1917-11-24
ST. ANNE'S CHURCH
Thanksgiving Day Services Will be
Observed Thursday, Nov. 18th
OUR AMERICAN FESTIVAL

OUR AMERICAN FESTIVAL
November 25th. The Sunday next
before Advent.
Services: 1890. Morning Prayer and
Sermon.
11.45. Sunday School session.
7.30. Evening Prayer and Sermon,
by the Rt. Rev. F. j. Kinsman, D. D..
Bishop of Delaware
The Public cordially invited to attend
these services.
Thursday next being Thanksgiving
| Day, services will be: Holy Communion
at A. M Morning Prayer and Sermon
at 1890.
The Offering on Thanksgiving Day
is for the Babies Hospital and Day
Nursery, Wilmington. This Hospital
is philanthropic institution and is
worthy of our generous support. Let
US show our appreciation and thankful
| ness for our comfortable homes and
| blessings by helping to make some little
child happy.
THANKSGIVING DAY SERVICES
Thanksgiving Day will be observed
this year on Thursday, November 29th,
in accordance with the official pro1fa-
nation of the President The second
service at half past ten will last but
one hour and need not disturb any do
| mestic arrangements, and it is hoped
that every member of the parish will
attend one or both of these services.
The purpose of the day is the manifes-
tation of thankfulness through public
worship, and it is ill-kept when this
principle is overlooked and forgotten.
The usual request is made that the
offering on Thanksgiving Day be sent
to the Babies Hospital and Day Muir
sery.
THANKSGIVING DAY is, indeed,
peculiarly our American festival. 1t
helps us to realize that we are essen
TALLY God-fearing people. We do
officially recognize His sovereignty,
Now and then some exceptional individ-
ual, exalted into an office that is too
great for him, may hold that God does
nothing particularly noticeable for US
but people generally repudiate that
sordid sort of view. Ever since the
custom became established, every Presi-
dent of the United States has regularly
issued his call to the people to render
thanks to Almighty God for His mercies
to the nation, and practically every
Governor of every state has reinforced
the same by his own proclamation.
Not line of statute law compels these
executives to proclaim the day. They
70 it freely and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
they recognize that the whole people
want it. There are neither atheists nor
agnostics on Thanksgiving Day. But.
the way in which, individually, we OBJ
serve the day, is the test of our own
vital appreciation of what God has done
for us and for our nation. Some of us Z
celebrate with our hearts and minds;
some with their stomachs.
NOVEMBER BOTH, ST. ANDREWS DAY
st. John l 40, Zone of the two which
heard John speak, and followed Him,
was Andrew, Simon Peters brother"
This feast is placed at the Eeginning
of the Church's year, because st. An
drew was the first called to be an apos-
tie, and the first to proclaim to others
the coming of the Messiah. Advent
Sunday (Which fails this year on De-
cember 3d. is always the one nearest
it, either before or after. and may even
fall upon the same day. St. Andrew
was born in Bethsaida of Galilee, was a
brother of st. Peter, and, like him,
poor fisherman until both were called
by our Lord to become fishers of men,"
Church history says that after our
Savinur's ascension, st. Andrew preach
ed the Gospel on the shores of the Black
Sea, or the region now known as the
famous Crimea, and that he was mar
tyred at Patrae, in Achaia. This apos-
tie is an example to US not only in his
constancy, but in his act of bringing
his brother to Christ. Let US ponder it
deeply, and urge ourselves onward to
new labors of love for the souls that
are most dear to US.
1t may be but little while that we
shall see around our firesides the faces
that we love best in this life, and bitter
exceedingly would be the thought that
in another world anyone of them should
be shut out from our sight forever.
All of us-even the smallest child that
has learned its need of Saviour-may
do something, if only by simple word
now and then, the silent force of a
meek and pious life, or the loving pray
er that God hears in secret but rewards
openly. Let US, then, do what we may
while yet we have time, and especially
at this season, lose no opportunity to
''br,ng unto Jesus" some brother"
who has not yet found the Messiah"