The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-11-27
THANKS BE TO GOD"

When. year ago. Thanksgiving Day dawned, it
broke upon world just emerging from chaos. To-
day, with more than twelve months gone, strife is
still in the very air BREATHE and peace still
but a fancy of ideasts
And yet with Russia Poland and Italy still in
state of war, with America and Mexico facing the
possibility of hostiities with revolutions and
ter-revoutions shaking Europe, and internal strife
imminent in almost every country of the world, still
today the world waits, and peace is undeclared
Looking back on the past five years. with its ire
mendous conflict and its awful carnage, followed by
its unsecured terms of peace. and its months OF
political intrigue and conflict between the forces of
labor and capital. the dawn of Thanksgiving Day
brings with 1t new hope of things to come pred-
Gated upon that which is ended
For however we may ha. e suffered in the years
that are passed; however much we may have sacr-
nced. however much may have relinqushed. the
that have gone have been the richest in gift
to humanity of all the years since the coming of
the Christ.
thems will rise from thousands of churches and
praise will arise from millions of homes, upon which
the blessings of war and of peace have fallen. For
all Of the good gifts of life not crowned with
flowers War; no less than peace, has its blessings.
When the very Prince of Peace spoke to his
disciples he said Il come not to bring peace but
sword"
1t is only through suffering that we can under
stand suffering; it is only through pain that we can
sense the travail of the world. War has brought us
close together in spite of the conflict of nations OF
factions, and of individuals.
Thanks be to God who has given us the victory
However inadequate may be, in our finite limita-
tiens however far short we may have fallen in our
stumbling blindness however ignorant we may be
OF how to make OF the great gift that is ours.
today the world is free and liberty is supreme
With every action, comes a great reaction; and
the farther out of balance, the harder to find the
center of poise But autocracy is dead. To that we
may hold fast That is the great the everlasting
truth.
Here in America today, we have reason to be
thankful because Americans. Because it was
and brothers as individuals to be victorious part
of the greatest warfare for Righteousness that the
world has waged.
Here in America today we may give thanks be-
the colors of our country have naser been
lowered in defeat But we have cause for deeper
ihankfulness than this.
To America a nation it was given to fire the
first shot for liberty That shot that heard
round the world. and is still ringing and the re-
verberation of which shall until freedom
Is secure.
The mothers of the world have not given their
sons without recompense. The who lie sleep
ing today across the seas. have not died in vain
God has not forgotten Nor has that splendid host
which went with them, step by step, up to the very
gates of DEATH
The world this Thanksgiving Day is going
through period of adjustment; turmoil is to be
expected; revolt is but part of reconstruction
And to America, thank God. the world is looking
today no less than in the days when we heard the
voice of the world calling across the sea: Come
and help u.s."
And as American manhood then with all the
strength of its power and pledged itself to the
world from massacre, again will it rise, if need
be. in defense of the nation and of every nation
which speaks the language of liberty.
Within this country today there is much of strife
but American manhood is still standing with his
hand on the trigger of the world and to the forces
autocracy and the agents of anarchy and bolshe-
vism and to the Hun, over in Berlin and his agent
in this country, where libefty born, he says, in
the language of his comrades at Chateau Thierry
1.-The American soldier does not know how to re-
treat"
And for this we are thankful. For the splendid
manhood that died on the battlefelds of France and
the manhood that is pledged to freedom for all
that these stand for, we give thanks, and looking
forward with eyes uncouded with any fear and with
spirit mistaken by any doubts, we know that God
has given us the victory.