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.

A Turkey's Opinion

1902

"What dost thou think of drumsticks?"
I asked a barnyard bird.
He grinned a turkey grin, and then
He answered me this word:
"They're good to eat, they're good to beat,
But sure as I am living,
They're best to run away with
The week before Thanksgiving."

—Anna M. Pratt.

A Thankful Note

1902

Let's be thankful that we're livin',
That the good God is forgivin',
That His heaven ain't far above us,
That His world has friends to love us;
That for all its sorrows — sighs,
Weary hearts and weeping eyes,
We can see bright suns arise
In the stormiest o' skies.


Human Vanity

Don't imitate the turkey's strut,
Because he has you beat.
You may be quite as handsome, but
You aren't good to eat.

Each Day A Thanksgiving

1912

Thanksgiving even for the supreme spiritual gift does not find its source in a sense of what we hold as our own, but far more in the knowledge that we who are so easily bewildered by empty and alluring aims are held, if we are willing, by the risen, living Lord, in balanced sanity and service through his indwelling. Not what we have in our keeping, or have not, but the blessed fact that Christ has us in full eternal keeping, quickens us to proclaim each new day a day of thanksgiving, in abiding confidence and joy. — The Sunday School Times.


It Is Easy To Be Thankful

For One Thing You Can Be Thankful You Are Not a Turkey

Thanksgiving Day is the day when every one says he is thankful, and wants to eat turkey to prove it. If you haven't anything else to be thankful for, you can be thankful you are not a turkey.

Thanksgiving Day was first observed by the Pilgrims, who were thankful that they had five grains of corn apiece. In these extravagant times a man wouldn't be thankful if he had ten grains of corn — which shows conclusively that we are too prosperous. The trusts are doing a noble work in remedying this evil condition.

People have various unreasonable reasons for being thankful on Thanksgiving Day. Some men are thankful they took a wife, and some are thankful they didn't take two. Bachelor maids are thankful they are not "horrid bachelors," and a married woman is always thankful that her husband has a good wife. It is easy to be thankful if you go about it right.

But the thing people are most thankful for is their money — even though they came by it honestly. The more a man has, the more thankful he is that it isn't less; and the less a man has, the less likely he is to be thankful because it isn't more. Be thankful, therefore, that you haven't too much to be thankful for. Turkey tastes all the better for coming but once a year. — Lippincott's.

All Should Give Thanks

Nov. 1912

Every Life and Every Heart in the Land Has Some Occasion for Gratitude

In their proclamations designating tomorrow as Thanksgiving day, the president and the governors of states have set forth in dignified and due order reasons why the people of this country should give thanks.

But every life and every heart in all the land has some occasion for special utterance of gratitude. Formal, official proclamations from the highest executive authorities may furnish suggestions for equally formal prayers in churches tomorrow, prayers in acknowledgment of divine favors received by us as a people and as individuals.

Cruden condenses the teachings of New Testament writers into his definition of thanksgiving: "An acknowledging and confessing, with gladness, the benefits and mercies which God bestows either upon ourselves or others."

As "every heart knoweth its own sorrow," so every life knows its own occasion for gratitude. And no heart has so great sorrow and no life so sad mourning but reason for thanksgiving is manifested in just those "benefits and mercies."

Herald Blasts — "When God's Fire is Burning"

1909

A cold church will soon begin to warm up when God's fire is burning in the preacher's heart.

"I shall not want," is always the song of the soul in which there is no doubt.

Whoever gives his body to be burned, and has not love, throws away his ashes.

No greater mistake can be made than to make the accumulation of riches the first business of life.

The lantern that only shines when the sun shines will never be of any service to those who are lost.

Unless we say "Our Father" in our money getting, we cannot worship God by saying it in church.

Without consistent Christian life to back up the preacher, there is no use in ringing the church bell.

The preacher who puts thought into his sermons will, sooner or later, find himself preaching to people who think.

It hurts more to live a day without prayer than without bread.

Suppose there are hypocrites in the church, does that make your sinning any safer?

The man who loves sin is a sinner, no matter how much he pays for a pew in church.

Begin every day with this thought: What happens to-day will be what God sees is best.

The Christian never has to count his cash to find out how much he has to be thankful for.

Isn't there a strong touch of hypocrisy in thanking God for the bread and finding fault with the cook? — Home Herald.