MOOSEHEART MAGAZINE
• -
■
.


%׳x x>
Â:״	. .	\ V V \	>. f	.
■ - .."■■■
T
\ <	V	-	־
Ay■
Why We Should Be Thankful
By RODNEY H BRANDON
.Let us give thanks! in this latter aay Hie!.!, navi oeen none of these more pressing enemies to encompass us about. No savages have beaten at our walls No unsurmountable obstacles have been put in our way. What we have striven to do we have done, ■and many of us have thought the path easy. We see, however, that we have enjoyed the blessings earned by the thrift of those who have gone before. We are thankful for that.
Let us give thanks! The shadow of the great world war has lifted and our boys are among us once again.
Let us give thanks! Our labors are over fox a day. For that time we are at home, resting with our families, enjoying the warm glow from our own hearths, or listening to the words of blessing and comfort from those men who are our spiritual advisors. For us this day is one of rest, and yet it is one of great works. Today we are seeing in the thanks we give to our Creator, that He exists, that the great Commonwealth of men, and women which exists under the name of ,Christian’ _ is not merely a surface name; is not merely a thing of passing interest or amusement; is not an institution made with hands, but is the earthly embodiment of that philosophy which God has given us to guide us, and which all of us are ready to recognize as a worthy haven from trouble and a precious friend when we are in need.
Let us give thanks! The world flies onward, leaving us standing, or carrying us along. We are at our bench, our table or our plow. The men and women who are about us are fighting for their place in this mighty whirl as we are for ours. Yet today is the one time in the year when we stop, all by mutual consent, forget the strife with brother man for one day and calmly ask ourselves, why can all this be? We may not see why it is. We may wonder at it ail. But this we discern, that behind it all, somewhere, there is a Mind that guides, an Infinity that shapes our ends, a Master Hand that holds the reins, and it is to that Infinite, that Power, that God, that today we bend the knee for a brief time, and express our thanks that we, and ours and all of us are blessed in our journeys.
Let. us give thanks!
IjfiT us give wanks! i'he day for it has come. Let j us give thanks! The discussion of the topic has become prosaic, as prosaic as such a noble topic can become. A nation bowing before its God cannot be common.
Let us give thanks! Moose,—MOOSEIIEART,— the Nation,—the World,—all. The greatest element in the thankfulness is the attitude of the people. What does it mean to give thanks?—That a Nation realizes its God. Prosperity encompasses us about. Dollars become the goal of our hopes. Humanity becomes merely a means and God a name. Why, therefore, is it not well that once in the year the voice of our President comes to us and he calls our attention to our God.
Let us give thanks! Two hundred years ago, a band of religious outcasts, refugees from the land of the usurper, congregated upon the narrow shores, between the bleak mountains and the uninhabitable sea. Much was not theirs. Natives, learning to hate them for their presence, came to set upon them. Hunger, disease, poor shelter, fought, them down. A generation struggled, prayed, lived. Fifty years saw a few meagre cities, clinging to the shore, kept alive by sleepless work and protected from invasion by dry powder and a trust in God. Finally there came a change. A faint rift was seen through the overhanging clouds. A Fall season came, and with Winter staring them in the face, these pilgrims saw him coming with bravery and courage, for there was corn in the bins, and meat to feed them all. And when this was seen and fully felt, their Governor called upon them saying, “Come together in your Churches on this day, the last Thursday of the month of November, that we may see God and acknowledge Him for He is the source from which these blessings come.” And they came together and in those narrow buildings, protected but passably from the blasts of approaching winter, these few persons met together and looked upon Him, who they believed to be their God, and said to Him, “We know that thou art for we have been blessed. We have done that which was impossible to do. We have builded homes where homes were not. Wo did this praying for Thy blessing. We have done what we wished, therefore we know that Thou art.”

m m
Jgpff
m. A
; fs

l