Thanksgiving Day – The Religious National Holiday

1900

Thanksgiving day is unique in one respect at least in that it is our only National holiday to which a distinctly religious character is given by official utterance. Christmas day, because it recalls the birth of Christ might be supposed to be the more religious occasion of the two, but Christmas long since has lost much of its religious significance as also indeed has Thanksgiving, but it is still true of the later that its celebration is ordered by official proclamation.

This at first thought may not mean a great deal, for we know in what terms of stale conventionality these annual proclamations are issued and that they come sometimes from executives to whom the name of God has no sacred import. But it is very significant that there has never yet been a Governor or President, however much of an unbeliever he might be, who was willing to offend the religious sense of the nation by failing to appoint a day of prayer and Thanksgiving.

It has often been observed that the name of God does not appear in our federal Constitution, but what matters it so long as year by year our chief magistrate and the magistrates of our nearly half a hundred mighty commonwealths call upon the people to remember God on this day of prayer. It matters little and especially so if the people themselves will but preserve this day and observe it in a manner consistent with its traditions. It need not be altogether spent in prayer and fasting; praise and feasting are quite as much in place.

Above all it should be a day when family ties are strengthened, when family hearths are ablaze and when father and mother, son and daughter should bow together before our Father's God, acknowledging all his blessings, and seeking his forgiveness for our sins. They who dedicate Thanksgiving day to mere sport and dining betray a sacred institution, and dishonor a noble ancestry who held God in faithful remembrance.

—The Ram's Horn, Nov. 17, 1900, p. 6.

Hard Things to Say

1896

Shibboleths to test sobriety, or comparative sobriety, in the case of supposed drunkards have often been heard of, and have generally been looked upon as jokes for the dinner table or the smoking-room, says the London News.

From a case reported at the Westminster Police Court it appears that a doctor, examined as a witness, has invented a test phrase which he regards infallible. This is "The artillery extinguished the conflagration early." This may be very effective, and it was tried successfully on a cabman (the defendant), but the doctor need not have taxed his inventive powers.

There is the "Peter Piper picked a peck of pepper," etc., test, and one or two more not quite so elaborate. "Biblical criticism" and "British Constitution" have long been favorite tests, but the best is probably "Mrs. Smith's fish sauce shop."



Religious Mania

A late official report shows that, contrary to common belief, cases of religious mania are rare in the British Isles. It also discloses the strange fact that more mental aberration is developed among the tribe of peddlers than among any other class, physicians and druggists coming next. Melancholia prevails most in Ireland.

The Twentieth Century

Nov. 1900

A Proposition For a Universal Religious Celebration of Its Incoming

The century will end on the Monday following the Sunday after Christmas. Why may we not by general consent and mutual understanding mark that day out from common time — aye, even from "kalendared" days — by lifting a wave of united Christian worship that will roll around the world, which "he hath called from the rising up of the sun even unto the going down of the same?"

I would have on that day a celebration of the holy communion in every church and chapel and meeting house throughout all Christian lands, with the use of such special prayers and lessons as the ecclesiastical authorities may see fit to "set forth," and a special collection for missions, writes the Rev. William N. Dunnell in The Churchman. And I would that at midnight of that last day of the century, in every place of worship, the people gather, "young men and maidens, old men and children," to praise the name of the Lord, and as the new century came in I would have every voice and heart and soul, every chime and organ, swell "the great Creator's praise."

Where it is possible I would have the holy places illuminated. Where there is lack of clerical supply I would have some faithful layman lead the devotions of the people. Let no one, in city or country, on plain or mountain, in bondage or free, aship or ashore, be without the opportunity of joining publicly in Christianity's twentieth century "birth hymn."



Saw Nine Generations

Harriet Williams Brand, who died recently in Brooklyn in her ninety-second year, had the rare good fortune to see representatives of nine generations of her family, extending from her great-great-grandfather to her great-great- grandson.

The Way, the Truth, the Life (poetry)

1905

The Way, the Truth, the Life

Amid life's wild commotion,
Where nought the heart can cheer,
Who points beyond its ocean
To yonder brighter sphere?
Our feeble footsteps guiding,
When from the path we stray,
Who leads to bliss abiding?
Christ is our only WAY.

When doubts and fears distress us,
And all around is gloom,
And shame and fear oppress us,
Who can our souls illume?
Heaven's rays are round us gleaming,
And making all things bright,
The sun of TRUTH is beaming
In glory on our sight.

Who fills our heart with gladness
That none can take away?
Who shows us, midst our sadness,
The distant realms of day?
'Mid fears of death assailing,
Who stills the heart's wild strife?
'Tis Christ our friend unfailing,
The WAY, the TRUTH, the LIFE.

—Karl Julius Asschenfeld.

—The Ada Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, January 21, 1905, page 3.