The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1921-11-23
A PSALM OF THANKSGIVING

The verse of David was the music of the human
but through it spoke the voice Of the Divine 1t
was an exhortation to the people of all lands for
all time. Tomorrow, again, the Lord will summon
! all creation to worship Him With gadness and
come before His presence with a song.
: We look, perhaps at the material misery that
still engulfs so many nations and wonder how
they shall be joyful in the Lord or render Him
glad service from a grateful heart
Shall Russia, broken on the wheel of lawless
tyranny Germany sick with the burden of stag
lgering defeat; Austria, dragging her bare bones
through the empty market place; Ireland, torn
and bleeding from the assassination that turks
by night and the reprsal that strikes at noon
time; France, with stern eyes, watching the Red
Terror in the eastern sky; shall all these indeed
be joyful in the Lord and come before His pres
ence with a song?
! If the material, or the transient were all in
all, the Lord would have inspired His servant,
David, to write his Psalm Of Thanksgiving as
piece Of cruel irony. But we know such was not
the case.
To find an answer turn back your thoughts to
the first Thanksgiving Day Under what promise
did the Pilgrim Fathers sing their first Psalm of
Thanksgiving? Not from the hope of material
gain or glitterng fortune Inconcevable hard
ships were their certain lot yet as they faced the
Wilderness from whose conquest they themselves
could expect to only glimpse the glory that should
be, they poured forth their praise to the Gver
of all good things and came into His presence {
with a song
And just as riches were added to Solomon, who
asked only for wisdom, so material prosperity has
come to the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers,
who thanked God only for their spiritual blessings.
Neither Russia nor Germany, Austria nor Ire I
land is facing today such prospect of utter T
desolation as the Pilgrims met and overcame three
hundred years ago. Ought these nations to take
part in the general chorus of thanksgiving to
which the American people have dedicated p
Thanksgiving Day? h
Can they afford to do any less? Can they ex- Ii
pect to regain what they have lost materially, t'
by losing what they should have gained spiritual tt
y? Not thus did the Pilgrims dedicate the long
Struggle they knew must lie ahead of them. D
In such times as these the bleak Plymouth Il
Rock becomes a rainbow of hope for the modern m
pioneer to whom God has assigned the conquest u
of new wildernesses.
Russia, Germany, Austria are pilgrims travel S!
ing strange and unfrequented roads, and all W
around and about them are thckets of thorn, and h
rocky gorges and long vistas of inhospitabIe lie
desert And how better shall they prepare them :,
selves to battle and overcome and build at last &
something worthy Of great destines than by doing
as the Pilgrims did at Plymouth-by serving the al
every year as day of Thanksgiving? -
But if all these other nations are called to come Ii
into Gods presence with song; if thanksgiving al
is not only privilege but duty for perpexed al
Britain, anxious France, sullen German and starv-
ing Austria what should the day mean to Amer an
glorious free-blessed with an abund- tn
ance of national health and wealth and oppor- OF
tunity no other people has ever been blessed ("
since the dawn of history? =,
How should these United States of ours pour Ii,
forth song of thanksgiving to the God who in 70
them has so literally rewarded the simple hon. w
age of the Pilgrim Fathers? :,
Enter then into His gates with thanksgiving w
and into His courts with praise Be thankful unto
Him and speak good of His name" to
Strange as 1t may seem, the hour of our pros III
perty may be for us at this time a sterner and
harder test than was the adversely from which TT
we reaped the harvest of our present freedom. 81
Lest we forget that the strength was not from n
ourselves, but from Him who alone controls the -
esinies of nations in all the festivities and re- NJ
iocing, in the family gatherings and reunions, OF
every true American will remember at this time N
that Thanksgiving Day is incomplete unless at !"
least one song of services riseth from a true and So
grateful heart to the Universal Father AT
For the Lord is gracious; His mercy is ever Al
asting and His truth endureth from generation =
10 generation" n
So today, from every state and city, every
Town and village and every countryside there
should 20 up to God the sincere thankfuness of
hearts filed with gratitude and love- That we
nave order and not chaos; plenty and not penury II
light and liberty and love, is due TO the fact that
merciful and Just God holds our dwelling place
n the hollow of His hand.
III