OUR THANKSGIVING: 
 
 
 ITS OBJECTS AND MOTIVES. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. JAMES LITTLE, A.M., 
 
 DELIVERED IN ST. PAULS CHURCH, UOWMANVILLE, CANADA, 
 
 ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1881, 
 
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 Being the day recommended by the Governor- General of Canada for Public Thanks- 
 
 giving for the Mercies of the Year. 
 
 
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 TORONTO : 
 Presbyterian Printing Office, 5 Jordan Street. 
 
 1881. 
 
P'=2.aA-.05 
 
 
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OUR THANKSGIVING: 
 
 ITS OBJECTS AND MOTIVES. 
 
 ** I will mention the lovingkimlnpssea of the Lord, and the jiraises of the 
 Lord, accordiii.-,' to all th:vt the Lord hath bestowed on us." — Is. Ixiii. 7. 
 "In every thing give thanks."—! Thess. v. 18. 
 
 THE sweet singer of Israel opens one of his beautiful 
 songs of praise witli the words, " It is a good 
 thing to give thanks unto the Lord." The very mention 
 of lovingkindness received from God is j)ri)fi table to the 
 recipient. It is also well pleasing to the bestower, Every 
 review we take of God's mercies tends to awaken and 
 strengthen in our souls feolings of obligation, gratitude, 
 and praise to Him ; and if we cease to recall and medi- 
 tate on His favours, they v>'ill soon fade from our recollec- 
 tion and be forgotten, and we will cease to have either 
 sense of indebtedness or desire to give thanks for them. 
 The return of an annual day of thanksgiving attbrds us a 
 happy opportunity of taking such review, and of present- 
 ing the tribute of a becoming gratitude. And since we 
 have been convoked to-day by the representative of the 
 Crown to unite with all our fellow-countrymen in giving 
 thanks for the mercies of the year to Him "from whom 
 all blessings HowV' we may conjoin in this service the duty 
 of good citizens with that of humble Christians. And 
 
we earnestly ask the Lord to be in this, and in all the 
 assemblies throughout the Dominion which meet to-day 
 to render thanks for His mercies. May He both inspire 
 and accept our united offering ! 
 
 In the first part of the Scripture announced as our 
 text we have the prophet Isaiah declaring that he " will 
 mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and His praises, 
 according to all the Lord has bestowed on us," — or, giving 
 the first verb the causative sense contained in the origi- 
 nal, putting for lovingkindnesses its synonym, mercies, and 
 leaving out the pleonastic copulative and, we may read 
 His words, " I will cause the mercies of the Lord to be 
 remembered, the praises of the Lord, according to all that 
 the Lord hath bestowed on us." Thus the prophet recalls 
 and makes mention of God's mercies bestowed on His 
 people, both that He may cause them to remember favours 
 already received, and that God may also be reminded of 
 them through the expressions of His people's gratitude. 
 In the second part of the text we have the apostle Paul 
 urging on those he addresses the discharge of an important 
 duty, viz. : giving thanks for every thing God is pleased 
 to bestow. Says he : " In every thing give thanks." The 
 apostle enjoins the duty for which the prophet's review 
 of God's mercies prepares the way. They unite in fur- 
 nishing us with a theme for our thought, which is appro- 
 priate for the occasion, and which I hope may be profit- 
 able to us, i.e,, mentioniifig the objects and urging the 
 duty of thanksgiving ; or briefly , the objects and. motive 
 of our thanksgiving. 
 
 I. In the first place, we will endeavour to help you to 
 remember God's mercies by making mention of some of 
 
 i ? 
 
them. When we consider them in their widest extent, 
 they appear numerous as the blades of grass in spiing, or 
 the leaves before the winds of autumn. They are spread 
 before us in the heavens over our heads, and come down 
 on us in the floods of light which the sun scatters over us 
 by day, and the moon and stars by night. We also enjoy 
 them in the bounties which a generous earth beneath our 
 feet so freely yields to supply the wants of all things that 
 live. All nature is full, and overflows with God's mercies, 
 even as springs of sparkling and refreshing waters when 
 gushing from an unseen and inexhaustible source ; also 
 in the capacities and cravings of our natures in connec- 
 tion with the abundant means provided for ap})ropriately 
 filling and satisfying them. As in our own constitution 
 and nature, so in the constitution and nature of things, 
 God's mercies abound. In the managing, as in the mak- 
 ing of the world, God shews His benevolence toward all 
 sentient creatures. He affords provision and protection 
 even to the weakest of His creatures, through those 
 instincts for seeking needed food, and readiness for escap- 
 ing from impending danger, which He has given them. 
 It would be most pleasant, did time permit, to traverse 
 these fields over which God's mercies are scattered so 
 liberally, and gathering some of them, cause you to re- 
 member them. But we must limit our survey by the 
 time at our disposal and by the object for which we have 
 to-day been called together. We shall therefore employ 
 the time remaining to us in this part of our subject in 
 bringing before you, under a few general points of view, 
 the mercies which God has bestowed on us as a people 
 during the year. 
 
6 
 
 Wo may first mention in a general way the increase 
 of our temporal prosprrit// in the year. The channels of 
 all kinds of })usiness flow witli a fuller and more vigorous 
 curient tlian for some time before. All our industries 
 are both more active and remunerative. Agriculture, 
 manufacturing and commercial pursuits and interests 
 have made i^enerous returns for the skill and labour 
 invested in them; also, every kind of labour finds ready 
 employment and fair wages. The increase of our fields 
 and of our Hocks is not merely equal to meet the wants 
 of home consumption, but yields a large surplus for the 
 wants of those who elsewhere need them. Then the 
 facilities for transportation of all marketable products is 
 increasing through the enterprise of competing lines, as 
 well as the opening up of new ones. Besides, the area 
 for the profitable ])rosecution of farming and agricultural 
 industries is widening indefinitely in the new and pro- 
 ductive lands of the North- West. In them a rapidly 
 increasing population, whose enterprise and perseverance 
 must command success, will be sure to attract many new 
 settlers to that new region. The outlook for national 
 development as well as personal advantage in this vast 
 fiehl is most pron)i.sing. There are great possibilities there 
 opening before us, and while we hail them with joy, we 
 admit it is this rather than v/hat is actually realized for 
 which ve are grateful. It is with us, to a large extent, 
 as when we look on a fine and healthy child who promises 
 by-and-by to become a vigorous man ; we are delighted 
 with the child^ not because we see him actually a man, 
 but because we see in him the possibilities of all we 
 admire in a man. We see greatness in type, in promise. 
 
as it were in prophecy. These great possibilities will in 
 clue time become, no doubt, ^reat realities. The future 
 which opens before the country now is, and for many 
 years must be, toward the west. One of the chief factors 
 in realizinfif a full success will be the succossful openinuj 
 and operating of that great n;itional work, the Canada 
 Pacific Railroa 1. When it rushes over th<^ thousands of 
 miles between the east^Tn and western borders of the 
 country, it will be the bearer of thousands of thrifty 
 settlers to their new fields, and of carrying their prodiicts 
 to tiie markets of the East. As, then, we take the most 
 cuisory view of our increasing prosperity for the year, 
 we thank God as well for the possibilities opening before 
 us, as for all actually realized. 
 
 But to be more specific: we must mention the general 
 mijoyment of (jood health by our peof)le during the year 
 as a great mercy for which we are to give thanks. It is 
 indeed true that not a few have borne pain or been under 
 the power of disease. Some have been afflicted in the 
 members of their families, and the homes of others have 
 been darkened by the shadow of bereavement. This 
 must be true in every year of our world's history. There 
 can be no escape from it while we are liaV>le to disease 
 and death. We have not been visited, however, by any 
 distressing epidemic, wasting plague, or noisome pesti- 
 lence, though a year ago numerous predictions of such 
 calamities were made by prophets of evil, who saw fearful 
 omens in the sky portending great disaster in this year. 
 It was asserted that because certain of the larger planets 
 would be in conjunction, and in their orbits would be 
 in the position of 'perihelion, great climatic and atmoa- 
 
8 
 
 pheric disturbances would take place, and malarial in- 
 Huences become so active tbat all great centres of popu- 
 lation in the old world, and many in the new, would by 
 disease be decimated or wholly depopulated. No such 
 scourges, we are happy to say, have wasted the people of 
 the East, nor distuibed us of the West. There has not 
 even been the appearance of that too frequent and always 
 dreaded visitant, the yellow fever, to any portion of the 
 Southern seaboard. It is God, the God of Providence, 
 who is full of goodness and mercy, and not chance, or 
 astrology, or luck, who rules in the realm of life and 
 health. And we give joyful thanks to Him to-day for 
 shielding us from all such mlamities, and for clothing our 
 faces with the glow of health, as well as our loved ones 
 who are not with us. 
 
 But again, for the blessivg of peace throughout the 
 land, and around all our widely extended border, we 
 render thanks to-day. No sounds of war have been 
 heard either from invading foe or of civil strife. Our 
 tranquillity has been so undisturbed that we have been 
 able to devote our undivided strength and time to prose- 
 cuting the arts of peace. Those of us who know nothing 
 of the evils of war from experience of them may be well 
 satisfied to remain long in practical ignorance of them. 
 For soon it lays the hand of a complete paralysis on every 
 industry, and stays the productive energies of a people. 
 It also wastes their accumulations and destroys their re- 
 sources; besides, it spreads feelings of insecurity and 
 alarm among a f/cople. With a frontier so vast and a 
 population so sparse as ours, great would be our danger 
 if nature, happy circumstances, and the favour of Provi- 
 
9 
 
 dence did not combine for our defence. But on three 
 aides we have the ini|)rc<[];nal)lo defences of nature — the 
 Atlaritic Ocean on the east, the Pacific; on the west, and 
 along our undeHned northern hordcM* we have a fortiHca- 
 tion stronger than a Chinese wall, in the girdle of ahnost 
 perpetual ice and snows encircling us. Then along our 
 vast southern frontier we have a powerful and frienclly 
 neighbour, to whom we are related by the strong ties of 
 sameness of origin, of language, of religion, and of civili- 
 zation ; and never have these ties united us in closer or 
 stronger friendship, we are happy to believe, than at the 
 present time. Long may we each, pursuing the path of 
 his own orbit, exert a beneficial influence on the other, 
 and therein move on to the highest prosperity ! 
 
 Closely related to the blessing of peace is the univer- 
 sal prevalence of security and civil order. The fabric of 
 civil government is constructed, and power is lodged in 
 the hands of its chief officers mainly for the protection of 
 life and property. We are surely enjoying these blessings 
 in a pre-eminent degree. Also, justice is dispensed with 
 impartial hand to all the people, and is not swayed from 
 its proper course by either personal influence or interests. 
 We even venture to assert that no country of such extent, 
 at so early a period in its civil life, can boast a greater 
 degree of order and security ; nor has any country under 
 like circumstances sustained a judiciary so able, so far 
 above reproach, and so faithful to its high trusts. It is 
 matter of gratitude, and perhaps of congratulation, that 
 though we are not free from the Ijitterness of political 
 agitation and party strife, no outrage has, during the 
 year, been committed against any of our leaders or rulers. 
 
10 
 
 We looked with horror at the sad .spectacle presented 
 to us a few weeks ago of the hea<.l of a great and free 
 state suddenly struck down by the nmrderous hidlet of 
 a cowardly assassin; and this when he was in the prime 
 of life, in the enjoyment of a rare ])opularity, and fulfil- 
 lin<( to the L^eneral satisfaction the hi^^h trusts which not 
 long before had 1 "en committed to him 1)y the voice of 
 the po|)ular suffrage. We abhor and detest the crime 
 which has de[)rived our neighbours of the United States 
 of a citizen so irreproachable, of a statesman so al)h', and 
 of a President so exemplary. We (!Ven wonder that in a 
 countiy- regarded as tlie home of freedom and the guar- 
 dian of liberty, so fell an outrage could be perpetrated; 
 and it is also saddening, though not perhaps so strange, 
 as we roll the curtain of the year a little further hack, to 
 gaze on another tragedy in some respects so like this, but 
 in others so wholly unlike it — i.e., the destruction of the 
 life of the Czar of the ancient autocracy of Russia by a 
 missile hurled by that incarnation of anarchy and de- 
 structiveness known as A'ihilism. Alexander 11., thou<di 
 not the head of a popular government nor sovereign of a 
 free people, was yet a lawful, and, in comparison with 
 most of his predecessors on the throne of Russia, a cle- 
 ment ruler. It will, no doubt, be a topic which will 
 interest some oi the students of political history to 
 explain how, in the same year, in tlie broad light of day, 
 by similar means, while each was peacefully pursuing his 
 proper duties, the heads of two countries so difierent in 
 their forms of government, in their political principles, 
 and in the exercise of popular rights and enjoyment of 
 popular freedom, should be cut otl* in so tragic and so 
 
11 
 
 powardly a mannor. We do not boast of, but aro thank- 
 ful for, freedom (birinu" tlie year from sucli outracjes on 
 the lives of our lionoured and prominent citizens. And 
 we heartily tliardv O )d for peace, <^nod order and security, 
 in all parts of our country, for all classes of our people. 
 
 Al>o, we must recall an<l mention another mercy 
 which God has bestowed upon us in the hounfifid h(irve'<t 
 and fruitful yo.ar He has f^iven us. The incr<'ase of the 
 field has l)een i^enerous. We have plenty to supply the 
 wants of all our p<^ople and also our cattle. There is even 
 a superabundance, for which there is need in the mother 
 country, and i]food prices ai"e offered in return. Our 
 season, unlike that of the United Kini^^dom, which v\'as 
 so much marred l)y excess of rains, lias been most favour- 
 able both in the time of matuiinir and of in'-atherinfr. 
 Our tiojks have also been nndti plied, and our cattle have 
 not been suffered to decrease. The supply of our comforts 
 and the increase of our wealth from these sources has 
 been much. Also, our trees have not cast their fruit, but 
 in their season have yielded us their delicious stores. We 
 have enjoyed the luscious berry, and we have plenty 
 of the mellowed apples. From field and fiock, from gar- 
 flen and orchard, even from the lakes and rivers, God has 
 made bounteous provision for us. We cannot justly say 
 less, or otherwise, than " He has crowned the year with 
 His goodness." 
 
 And before passing from this review, and while our 
 hearts are lull of grateful recollections of God's Vjounties, 
 let me remind you of what we owe to any among us who 
 may, from any cause, have been unable to secure the por- 
 tion they need. Let us with kindly eye look after them, 
 
12 
 
 and with modest yet liberal hand supply them. The 
 poor are God's pensioners, and we who are stewards of 
 God's bounties are their JMiil^ In dealing with them 
 and for them, we do a service also for God. There is 
 plenty provided by the Father for us all, and let us not 
 withhold help where it is needed. Even let us seek 
 out every one of our brethren who may need ; nor let us 
 be too curious in criticizing the poor stranger who may 
 sojourn among us, even though we know little of his 
 history. It is better to relieve ninety-nine undeserving 
 ones than to neglect one who is worthy. 
 
 I must not fail to cause you to remember the loving- 
 kindness of the Lord bestowed on us and our people i7i 
 continuiwj to us the blessings of the Gospel, and in ex- 
 tending and 2^i'08permg His work during the year. Jesus 
 Christ, the light of the world, is shining with clear and 
 healing beams on Canada. If we walk not in His light, 
 it is because we love darkness rather. Throufjh this 
 Gospel His people are making increase in grace and 
 truth, in life and peace, in joy and hope ; also, many 
 are by its power gathered from the world into the 
 kingdom of our Lord. The different tribes of Israel in 
 the land are pressing forward, both in the work around 
 their homes and forward into the North-West, rapidly, 
 as the wave of settlement advances. Churches are being 
 or<janized and Christian societies formed in its most 
 sparsely settled portions Even away beyond the reach of 
 the railroad whistle, and where the telegraph wire has not 
 been stretched, the sound of worshipping assemblies is 
 heard, and the melody of their worship rolls over the 
 bcarcely broken expanses of the prairie. We gratefully 
 
13 
 
 recognize the goodness of God in honouring the branch 
 of the Church to which we belonij, both in her fjrowth 
 and her activity, in helping forward His work. He is 
 enlarging and strengthening her, so that, full of unity 
 and vigour, she now extends from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific Ocean, and from our southern border on the 
 United States to the farthest settlements on the North, 
 and in this wide region, with increasing zeal, liberality 
 and success, is labouring for the Master. For not only 
 has the increase of our whole Church during the year 
 been cheering — not only have our numerous outposts and 
 missions been maintained, but new fields have been 
 mapped out, and the banner of the Cross has been raised 
 in eighteen hundred and eighty-one where it had not 
 before been unfurled. Yet we must remember, " much 
 land remains to be possessed." 
 
 We, as a congregation, have reason to mention to-day 
 with gratitude the season of deep religious spiritual 
 quickening and growth in grace enjoyed by us in the 
 beginning of the year. We also recall the lovingkind- 
 ness of the Lord bestowed on you in your growing 
 liberality and zeal on behalf of all the enterprises of our 
 Church as a whole. We have been stepping, each year, 
 for some time, a little in advance of the one going before^ 
 and the past year has shewn some gain on any of its 
 predecessors. It is still true we have not yet reached 
 the measure of our ability or of our duty. But we have 
 reason both to thank God and take courage. And as we 
 mention the mercies of the Lord in so many other ways, 
 let us not fail to keep before us that He has continued 
 the Gospel and extended His work during the year. 
 
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 Having thus mafJo mention of the mercies of the 
 Lord which He has bestowed on us, 
 
 II. Let us, in the next place, consider son.e of the 
 motives we liavc for rendering to Him tlie tribute of our 
 tlianksgiving. And we may say, first, because all our 
 mercies come from Him, and lie is well pleased with the 
 offering of a grateful thanksgiving for them. If we 
 receive or do favours one to another, though tl'.ev be 
 small as the giving of a cup of cold water, even thougli 
 the giver be one whose rluty is to serve us, we yet feel 
 impelled by the promptings of an innate gratitude to 
 otter some return of thanks. We would even char<>'e 
 that person with lack of gratitude or lack of courtesy 
 who wouhl refuse, in return for a favour received, to 
 giv^e thanks. When, then, we consider the greatness and 
 the number of God's mercies, of which we are the daily 
 recipients, we must chai'ge ourselves, and all who fail to 
 gratefully acknowledge His benefits, with the guilt of 
 ingratitude and disregard of the honour of God. Did 
 we proportion our returns to the greatness, the number, 
 the everduringness of God's mercies, the stream of irrati- 
 tude would never run dry in our hearts, and we would 
 never be without reasons for praise. 
 
 And surely we cannot, by any sophistry of reason, 
 bring ourselves to believe that the good things we enjoy 
 are not so in His gift and power that we may truly say 
 they all come from God. Not unfrequently, indeed, we 
 find persons who, being successful in their business and 
 in the pur-^uits of life, ascribe their prosperity to the 
 judgment or ability with which they laid their plans, or 
 to the wis lorn with which they combined and con- 
 
15 
 
 ceiitrated divergent interests, or to the energy with 
 wliich they carried all into efiect. Or tiiey peihaps 
 ascribe all to a happy concurrence of circumstances over 
 which they had no control. All these ways of sjieaking 
 and reasoning virtually ignore or deny the controlling 
 presence piul influence of God. They are in the very 
 face of that lesson of God's Word (Deut. viii.) which we 
 read this niorninir, which, warnini^ us of this dano^er, 
 declares " for it is the Lord (He) that giveth thee power 
 to get wealth." It is really with every man's Imsiness 
 as it is with the husbandman's crop — its success is 
 from God. For apart from cultivation of the ground, 
 sowing of the seed and care of the crop, its increase 
 depends on what tlic fanner cannot do or give — (,n the 
 sunshine, on the rain and salubrious atmosphere. These 
 are outside as well as apart from what is in Mis hands. 
 So are the sources of prosperity and success. It is even 
 true that God bestows whatever talents, wisdom or 
 enei'gy we have upon us, and we should ther(.'fore give 
 thanks to Him alone. 
 
 This, which is true of every individual, is true when 
 we consider the reason and motive to national thanks- 
 giving — all the blessings whicli to-day cheei' and gladden 
 us — our increasing prosperity, whether in local or special 
 cases or in the condition of the country at lariie, all of 
 which we hail with joy, we attribute to God as the 
 source of all. We therefore do not render our thanks- 
 givings to our gracious Sovereign the Queen, good and 
 beloved as she truly is, wise and beneficent as has been 
 her reign, and happy as is our relation to her and to 
 the empire, and heartily and devoutly as we can say 
 
16 
 
 and pray " God save the Queen " — it is to God, the 
 Supreme Ruler, whom she and we alike delight to honour 
 and adore. Nor do we to the gifted young nobleman 
 who fills the vice-regal thi-one, though grateful for the 
 honour of having the worthy son of so distinguished a 
 house at the head of our affairs, and are happy to believe 
 he has used his high position only to promote the 
 prosperity of the whole country. Nor, again, do we 
 render our thanksgiving to our Government, though we 
 acknowledge its energy and enterprise in pressing forward 
 affairs of national importance, and in giving effect to long- 
 contemplated plans for the development of the country, 
 especially in the North- West. It is still to be remem- 
 bered that neither to Sovereign, nor Governor-General, nor 
 to the Ministry, nor to ourselves do we owe the mercies 
 we enjoy, or render thanksgiving for them, but to the 
 King of kings and to the Lord of lords, who crowns the 
 year and our lives with His goodness. 
 
 Besides, we have both reason and motive for thanks- 
 giving for everything God bestows in the good effect 
 it produces in our hearts and on our character. It 
 is quite common to admit that for prosperity, success, 
 or good fortune, we shall be grateful and give thanks. 
 But it is not so common to see in adversity, in 
 calamity, in misfortune, anything of blessing or mercy, 
 disposing u;, to gratitude and giving of thanks. We 
 heard a cjentleraan of considerable intelliofence, and 
 some aspiration for popular favour, remark three years 
 ago, on a day set apart for thanksgiving, that " he did not 
 think we had much reason for thanksgiving that year 
 inasmuch as it was not specially prosperous." He failed 
 
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 to appreciate the precious blessings which even tlien Go<l 
 was liberally bestowino-, and left altogether out of \iew 
 the fact that the discipline of such a con<lition might 
 contain the germs of the most lasting blessings, and, a> 
 seen from its after effects, might be one for which, above 
 others, to be grateful. A young nation is, I apprehend, 
 very much like a young person. The uninterrupted flow 
 of prosperity tends to produce pride, arrogance and 
 extravagance. It is well for the young man early in life 
 to be trained out of these vicious tastes and tendencies. 
 That which does it is good, even though disagreeable and 
 hard to be borne. It must be done, however, if in thi* 
 far future he is to be a great success. Now, if God has a 
 great future in store for this people — as I believe He has 
 — we ought not to disregard the discipline of adversity, or 
 fail to be thankful for it when sent. That is a mercy 
 which checks in our young national life the growth of 
 arrogance, extravagance, and trust in worldly prosperity, 
 and which nurtures virtue, integrity, truth, honesty and 
 justice. This will be of more value to the people a 
 hundred years irom now than the most unbroken 
 prosperity. It will moderate habits, repress folly, and 
 teach industry and self-reliance. It is not great pros- 
 perity which nurtures great virtues in a nation, but 
 great virtues lead to great prosperity and permanence. 
 The nations of the past which attained greatness and 
 wealth, but yielded themselves to extravagance and 
 self-indulgence, hasted to their ruin just as they gave 
 way to their excesses. The seeds of a people's weakness 
 and decay is undoubtedly sown in their baseness and 
 want of virtue, while a people's strength and permanence 
 
18 
 
 is in their moral excellencies. Likewise ought we 
 [)ersonally to thank God for everything He bestows, 
 whether it be prosperous or adverse. In so regarding 
 God's dealings that we see mercy and goodness in them 
 all, we learn to entertain right feelings toward Him, and 
 right apprehensions of His beneficent and fatherly 
 designs toward ns. We may learn by the friction of our 
 sharpest trials how God brightens in us the most beautiful 
 of virtues. By sufferings grievous to be borne, He may 
 mellow and mature the gentlest and sweetest of Christian 
 graces. By the smelting heat of the furnace He may 
 burn out the dross of our old natures, and leave the pure 
 metal only the brighter. By all the afflictions He is 
 pleased to send, He does indeed produce in those 
 rightly exercised the peaceable fniits of righteousness. 
 In all and for all these bestowments of God we should 
 therefore give Him thanks. When the zealous and 
 eloquent Chrysostom, the chief pastor of the Church 
 of Constantinople, was banished by his persecutors in 
 the fourth century from his home and work to the 
 inhospitable regions of the Caucasus and Isuria, he was 
 accustomed in his poverty and exile to say joyfully in his 
 <laily prayers and frequent ejaculations, " Glory to God 
 for everything." His gratitude and praise exceeded even 
 the measure of his sufferings, and God was his exceeding 
 Joy. When Samuel Rutherford of Alnwich, in Galloway- 
 shire, Scotland, was driven from his flock and home in 
 the iron time of religious intolerance, he WTote some of 
 his memorable letters during his imprisonment in Aber- 
 deen. In one of these he says : " I never knew before that 
 His love was in such a measure. Though I am sick and 
 
19 
 
 in pain, yet am I sick of love ; my sickness is my life and 
 health." Paul and Silas, in the dungeon of Philippi, 
 ilurini' the darkness of the niji'ht, when their limbs were 
 stretched on the stocks, and their backs still bleeding 
 from the stripes inflicted by the cruel hands of an unfeel- 
 ing jailor, gave praise to God for all, for we are told 
 '" they prayed and sang praises to God." Like these true 
 s(irvants of (iod, we should regard all God bestows as in 
 some sense a mercy, and as meant in some way to bring 
 us good, and so in love and gratitude we should render 
 thanks for all. 
 
 But to come to a close. Gather up in your memories and 
 in your liearts all the good and great things God has 
 done for you this year — for you personally, for you who 
 are accustomed from week to week to worship in this 
 sanctuary, for all our land and to all our people. We 
 liave had a whole year of mercies: improvement in the 
 state of our temporal concerns, general good health, peace 
 and security enjoyed throughout the land, a season full 
 of productiveness, and, chief of all, the Gospel's bless- 
 ings enjoyed and extended among our people. How 
 can we be silent while the bounty of God is lavished 
 with such profusion upon us ? How can any one's heart 
 remain unmoved, or his tongue not break forth with 
 songs of thanksgiving? Let us all praise Him for all 
 His mercies : 
 
 " For the beauty of the earth, 
 For the beauty of the skies, 
 Trdr:t*ie fov^'jrhjdllfj'opttnir birtH ... 
 • 'Cfvei'*aSad Jijgilml a8»l>es ; .; T Zl* 
 
 •• - - , 
 
 ,. •• .•••• 
 
 «... • » » 
 
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20 
 
 " For the joy of ear ami eye, 
 
 For the heart and mind's deliglit ; 
 For the mystic harmony, 
 
 Liiikini^ sense to sound and sight : 
 
 " For the joy of human love, 
 
 Brother, sister, parent, chiUl ; 
 Friend on earth and Friend al>ove, 
 For all gentle thoughts and mild ; 
 
 "For each perfect gift of Thine, 
 To our race so freely given : 
 (iraces human and divine. 
 
 Flowers of earth and buds of heaven, - 
 Christ, our God, to Thee we raise 
 Thin (»ur sacrifice of praise." 
 
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