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 Thanksgh^g sermons and outline addrej 
 an aid for pastors / J 
 
THANKSGIV 
 SERMONS 
 
 AND 
 
 OUTLINE ADDRESSES 
 
 AN AID FOR PASTORS 
 
 COMPILED A>JD EDITED BY 
 WILLIAM E. KETCHAM, D. D. 
 
 'IVe see our Father's hand once more 
 
 Reverse for us the plenteous horn 
 
 Of autumn, filled and running o'er 
 
 With fruit, and flower, and golden corn." 
 
 -Whittier 
 
 READING, PA. 
 FRANK J. BOYER, Publisher 
 
 Office of The Preacher's Assistant 
 A Homiletic Monthly 
 
Copyright, 1894, 
 By Wilbur B. Ketcham. 
 
INTEODUCTIOlSr. 
 
 Thanksgiving services are general in Chris- 
 tian communities. There is an innate sense 
 of the rightfulness and propriety of Thanks- 
 giving which is in accord with the teachings 
 of Christianity. Various are the legitimate 
 ways the Christian minister, and especially 
 those entering upon their arduous and impor- 
 tant duties, may secure the needful prepara- 
 tion to discourse upon this ever-fruitful theme 
 of Thanksgiving. His primaiy resource must 
 be God's own Word. He is, however, lacking 
 in research, and illy qualifies himself for the 
 discharge of this imperative duty of suitable 
 discourse upon Thanksgiving, who fails to 
 glean and appropriate from every field, with 
 prayerful care, all help available, extracting 
 the sweets from all flowers as the bee the 
 honey. Those who have ofttimes traversed 
 the fields in search of themes and material, 
 and therefore whose skill and wisdom in selec- 
 tion are matured, can well render to those of 
 
 3 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 lesser experience wholesome aid. A single 
 suggestion may open in tlie reader's mind an 
 unexpected fountain of thought from which 
 shall flow healthful reflection and appropriate 
 discourse. The able clergymen whose terse, 
 abundant, and suggestive thought is brought 
 to the attention of the readers of this book 
 will, we trust, contribute to render the aid in- 
 dicated. So frequent and persistent are the 
 inquiries for such suitable aids that we are 
 happy to meet the demand and place within 
 the reach of all a volume which contains the 
 product of the best thought of a number of 
 prominent and devout ministers. It will be 
 observed that the Sermons and Outlines are 
 evangelical, unsectarian, and thoroughly prac- 
 tical. 
 
 We send forth this book believing he best 
 conforms to the divine ideal who is prompted 
 to generous gratitude '' to the unsparing and 
 unwearied Griver," to whom, now and ever, be- 
 longeth reverent thanksgiving. 
 
COIfrTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Thanksgiving Day. Historical Sketch 9 
 
 J The Table Prepared in Presence of Foes. By Hugh 
 
 Macmillan, D.D., LL.D 11 
 
 The Fatherhood op God and the Brotherhood of 
 
 Man. By Rev. Charles Neil, M. A 32 
 
 The Parable of Harvest. By Rev. W. J. Dawson 47 
 
 The Chain of Blessing. By J. Monro Gibson, D.D 64 
 
 " The Dew unto Israel. '* By Rev. J. Robinson Gregory 77 
 The Plowman Taught of God. By Rev. Francis 
 
 Standfast 88 
 
 The Voice of ThanksAving. By Rev. O. D. Sherman. 103 
 The Feast of Tabernacles. By Rev. Ralph Williams. 113 
 
 All Gifts God's Gifts 122 
 
 The Harvest and its Lessons. By Rev. J. S. Pawlyn. 135 
 The Witness of the Harvest. By Rev. G. A. Ben- 
 netts, B. A 147 
 
 Unto God Thanksgiving. By Rev. J. H. C. McKinney. 159 
 
 The Joy in Harvest. By Rev. Arthur E. Gregory 168 
 
 •] The Widow's Cruse 174 
 
 5 
 
O CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Sower. By Rev. Gordon Calthrop 184 
 
 » Apart from the Vine 190 
 
 God the Giver of Increase 195 
 
 A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey 203 
 
 The Bread of Life 208 
 
 Our Daily Bread 209 
 
 The Earth a Teacher 219 
 
 The Springing Forth of Righteousness. By Rev. 
 
 A. H. Vine 226 
 
 A Beggar in Harvest. By Rev. G. A. Bennetts, B.A. . 231 
 
 A Thanksgiving Day 234 
 
 The Cup of Salvation 245 
 
 The Parable of the Sower. By Rev. J. Robinson 
 
 Gregory , . 254 
 
 I Growth and Increase 260 
 
 Weather-wise 265 
 
 The Secret Growth of the Seed 272 
 
 God Supplying Human Need 276 
 
 Praise 282 
 
 The Moral Lessons of the Harvest 286 
 
 Nature Waiting upon God 288 
 
 The Feast of Harvest 290 
 
 Thanksgiving— ITS Definition. By Isaac Barrows, D.D. 293 
 
 -' Thanksgiving Day. By E. H. S 294 
 
 . Harvest Festival. By Rev. M. F. Sadler 295 
 
 The Harvest 297 
 
CONTENTS. 7 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ^ For welat to Give Thanks. By Kev. J. H. Brookes . . . 299 
 
 V Call to Gratitude. By the Rev. John Stevenson 301 
 
 '^ The Duty of Thanksgiving. By Isaac Barrows, D.D. . 302 
 The Blessings for which we should be Thankful . . . 302 
 
 Prayer and Praise. By Rev. John Stevenson 303 
 
 Thanksgiving is a Necessity. By Rev. S. Baring- 
 Gould, M. A 304 
 
 Abstract from Thanksgiving Address. By Hon. John 
 
 W. Ramsey 306 
 
 Gratitude Expressed. By Rev. R. Andrew Griflfin .... 308 
 
 Our Thanksgiving 309 
 
 He hath Done Great Things. By Rev. W. H. Strick- 
 land 313 
 
 Timely Thoughts : 
 
 Our Benefits 322 
 
 The Glory of the Country 323 
 
 Thoughts for the Day 323 
 
 Giving Thanks always for all Things 324 
 
 Patriotism and Religion 325 
 
 Two Thanksgivings 326 
 
 The Bible 326 
 
 Suggestive Themes 327 
 
 Suggestive Texts 328, 329 
 
THANKSaiYINa DAY. 
 
 HISTOKICAL SKETCH. 
 
 This annual autumnal festival, at or after 
 the time of the ingathering of our harvests, is 
 observed in our country and is akin in many 
 features to the Harvest Thanksgiving days of 
 other countries. History informs us of an oc- 
 casional day of thanksgiving in foreign lands 
 by civic order. The day was observed by the 
 recommendation of the civil authorities at 
 Leyden, Holland, October 3, 1575, the first 
 anniversary of the deliverance of that city 
 from siege. The following statement from 
 McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia is true to 
 history, and concisely presents the origin and 
 growth of this now national festival : 
 
 " After the first harvest at Plymouth, Mass., 
 in 1621, Governor Bradford sent four men out 
 fowling, that they ^ might after a more special 
 manner rejoice together.' In July, 1623, the 
 governor appointed a day of thanksgiving for 
 rain after a long drought, and the records show 
 
 9 
 
10 HISTOEICAL SKETCH. 
 
 a similar appointment in 1632 because of the 
 arrival of supplies from Ireland. There is also 
 record of the appointment of days of thanks- 
 giving in Massachusetts in 1632, 1633, 1634, 
 1637, 1638, and 1639, and in Plymouth in 1651, 
 1668, 1680 (when the form of the recommen- 
 dation indicates that it had become an an- 
 nual custom), 1689, and 1690. The Dutch 
 governors of New Netherlands in 1644, 1645, 
 1655, and 1664, and the English governors of 
 New York in 1755 and 1760, appointed days of 
 thanksgiving. During the Revolution, Thanks- 
 giving Day was observed by the nation, be- 
 ing annually recommended by Congress ; but 
 there was no national appointment between the 
 general thanksgiving for peace in 1784 and 
 1789, when President Washington recommend- 
 ed a day of thanksgiving for the adoption of 
 the Constitution. Since that time special days 
 have been set apart both by Presidents and 
 governors until 1864, when the present prac- 
 tice was adopted of a national annual Thanks- 
 giving. Custom has fixed the time for the 
 last Thursday in November." 
 
THANKSGIVING SERMONS AND 
 OUTLINE ADDRESSES- 
 
 THE TABLE PEEPARED IN PRES- 
 ENCE OF FOES. 
 
 BY HUGH MACMILLAN, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 " Thou prepares! a table before me in the presence of mine 
 enemies." — Psalm xxiii. 5. 
 
 These words are generally supposed to al- 
 lude to the seasonable hospitality which Bar-^ 
 zillai and his friends gave to David during his 
 flight before Absalom. Faint and full of sor- 
 row, the king and his faithful companions 
 reached the territory of Mahanaim, on the 
 eastern side of the Jordan ; and the Gileadite 
 chiefs supplied them immediately after their 
 arrival with all that was needed to satisfy 
 their hunger and thirst and refresh their weary 
 bodies. So varied and profuse was the pro- 
 vision made for the wants of the royal party, 
 
 11 
 
12 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 in the native produce of the rich pastoral lands 
 of Gilead, that the sacred historian, in his ac- 
 count of the incident, enumerates each article 
 separately. It was a most memorable occa- 
 sion, and the feast was a striking example of 
 the lavish liberality of Eastern princes in those 
 early days. There were three things that em- 
 phasized the allusion of David to it and made 
 it exceedingly appropriate. There was, first, 
 the great physical exhaustion to which the 
 king and his followers were reduced. They 
 had tasted no food since the early part of the 
 previous day, when, having crossed the Jordan, 
 they rested and partook of the slight refresh- 
 ment of bread and dates and grapes which Ziba, 
 the servant of Mephibosheth, had given them. 
 Then there was the terrible danger to which 
 David was exposed. A price had been set upon 
 his head by his own unnatural son. Behind 
 him were enemies thirsting for his blood ; be- 
 fore him was a dark future of miserable per- 
 plexities out of which there seemed no way of 
 escape. Ahithophel, wisest of all the Israelite 
 statesmen, had gone over to the side of the foe ; 
 for he had, through the wrongs of his grand- 
 daughter Bathsheba, the deepest personal rea« 
 sons for revenge. Shimei, the fierce Benja- 
 mite, had cursed the king and thrown dust 
 and stones at him all the way from Jerusalem 
 
TABLE PEEPARED IN PRESENCE OF FOES. 13 
 
 to Jordan. The generous conduct of Barzillai, 
 therefore, contrasted strongly with the cruel 
 hatred of these enemies. And there was, fur- 
 ther still, the fact that the Grileadite chief had 
 been connected with the house of Saul, whose 
 daughter Merab his son Adriel is supposed to 
 have married. He might, therefore, have ex- 
 ulted in David's overthrow and the prospect 
 of bringing back the old dynasty, and have 
 added his curses to those of Shimei ; but, for- 
 getting all grounds of hatred, the Grileadite 
 chief, in the most unstinted manner, hastened 
 to place the best of his stores before the fallen 
 king. And the hospitality of strangers upon 
 whom he had no claim revived the heart that 
 had been sorely stricken by the ingratitude of 
 his own flesh and blood. 
 
 Such was the table to which David re- 
 fers, and such were the enemies in whose pres- 
 ence it was prepared. It was so remarkable, 
 so well timed, and so suitable in every respect, 
 that the psalmist could not fail to recognize in 
 it the direct interposition of God's own hand. 
 It was a miracle of Divine Providence. He 
 who had been the guide of his youth, who had 
 prepared his way to the throne of Israel, had 
 spread this table in the wilderness for him. 
 David, while living the life of a fugitive from 
 Saul's persecution, had been often supported 
 
14 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 by the grateful contributions of the farmers, 
 whose flocks and herds he had defended against 
 marauders; and he had several times experi- 
 enced the generous kindness of those v^ho were 
 aliens in race and religion. He had even been 
 privileged, in his sore extremity, to satisfy his 
 bodily hunger by the showbread of the taber- 
 nacle, which it was unlawful for any but the 
 priests of Grod to eat. But never, in his most 
 desperate adventures and wonderful deliver- 
 ances, had he felt the loving-kindness of the 
 Lord so deeply as on this occasion. In Bar- 
 zillai's generosity, which he did not deserve, 
 because Barzillai belonged by right to the 
 house of his enemy Saul, he recognized the 
 wonderful mercy of God, which he did not de- 
 serve because of his heinous transgressions. 
 And as he had felt that the curse of Shimei 
 was the curse of Grod because of his sin, and 
 bore it patiently as if in it he was privileged 
 to make expiation for his sin, so he felt that 
 the feast of Barzillai was the feast of God, in 
 which God had signified the forgiveness of 
 his iniquity and the divine reconciliation and 
 peace. 
 
 We may take the words of the psalm- 
 ist and apply them to our own circum- 
 stances at the close of another harvest. There 
 are three points of resemblance between the 
 
TABLE PKEPAKED IN PRESENCE OF FOES. 15 
 
 provision made for David and the provision 
 made for us. These are its divine preparation, 
 its abundance and suitableness, and its being 
 made in the presence of our enemies. We 
 have seen who David's enemies were, and how 
 the food which he needed came to him as a 
 victorious feast to celebrate his conquest of 
 his foes. And so our harvest is year after 
 year prepared for us in the presence of many 
 foes, with which, through all the summer 
 months, it maintains a prolonged struggle, 
 and over which in the end it obtains a hard- 
 won triumph. 
 
 1. Let us consider first, tlien, the ene- 
 mies in whose presence our table is pre- 
 pared. In ancient Greek fable we are told 
 about the harpies, monstrous creatures with 
 the bodies and wings and long claws of birds 
 and the faces of maidens pale with hunger. 
 They were sent by the gods to torment the 
 blind prophet Phineus, who had offended them 
 by his misdeeds. Whenever a meal was placed 
 before the unfortunate man the harpies darted 
 down from the air and carried it off, and either 
 devoured the food themselves or rendered it 
 unfit to be eaten. It was with the utmost 
 difficulty that he was delivered from these 
 frightful enemies by the prowess of two of the 
 Argonauts, who had come thither in search of 
 
16 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 the Grolden Fleece. Like all classic fables, this 
 one has a profound moral. In this old-world 
 story we see represented by the blind seer 
 Phineus, who had incurred the anger of the 
 gods, man as a tiller of the ground, upon whom 
 the divine curse has been pronounced, because 
 of his sins, that in the sweat of his face he 
 should eat bread ; wise by insight and experi- 
 ence in regard to the common operations of 
 agriculture, but blind as to the issues and re- 
 sults of these operations, ignorant what may 
 be the increase of his sowing and the harvest 
 of his toil, if any. In the harpies we see rep- 
 resented the various enemies that are con- 
 nected with the growth and supply of our 
 food, that are constantly on the watch to pre- 
 vent us reaping the fruit of our labors, or ren- 
 dering it unprofitable or unpalatable when it 
 is reaped. Since sin came into the world God 
 has ordained that man should encounter in full 
 force the unkindly elements of nature. He 
 sees everywhere around him a bare, hard 
 wilderness, whence not a morsel of bread can 
 be wrung but by the most strenuous labor, 
 snatched, as it were, in the pauses of the storm 
 and during the gleams of sunshine. If seed- 
 time and harvest shall never cease, that divine 
 promise implies that the need of them shall 
 never cease ; that the annual harvest of the 
 
TABLE PKEPARED IN PEESENCE OF FOES. 17 
 
 world will only suffice for the world's annual 
 food. The earth nowhere brings forth double 
 harvests ; and therefore year after year man 
 has to sow and reap his fields. And nothing 
 is more precarious than the growth of the corn 
 upon which we depend for our daily bread. 
 It is surrounded continually by innumerable 
 enemies. 
 
 There is, first, unsuitable soil and cli- 
 mate. It is within a comparatively small area 
 of the earth's surface that we can grow our corn. 
 Beyond that area it is too cold or too hot. 
 And even within that area the conditions are 
 not always favorable. It is not everywhere 
 that our farmers can get the soil and climate 
 that are most suitable. They have in many 
 cases to sow and reap in sterile situations, 
 where the seasons are late, late spring and 
 early winter following hard upon each other, 
 and thus necessitating an unusual expenditure 
 of toil and anxiety. And even in the most 
 favorable circumstances of soil and climate 
 the skies are often unpropitious. There are 
 droughts in the early part of the summer, 
 withering the stem and blade of the corn; 
 there are long-continued rains, which develop 
 the straw at the expense of the ear ; and at a 
 critical period, when the corn is in flower and 
 hangs out from its green head its slender, white, 
 
18 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 threadlike filaments, whose pollen is carried 
 from blossom to blossom by the agency of a 
 light, gentle breeze, violent winds may blow 
 for days, carrying this vital dust to too great 
 a distance, and only a small part of it reaches 
 the bloom of the corn; the consequence of 
 which is that the ear, though formed, is half 
 empty of nutritious material, and there is a 
 great deficiency in the produce. Were these 
 slender threads to fail in their all-important 
 work, were they to shrivel up or be blighted 
 by unfavorable weather — and it would seem 
 as if a fiercer ray of sunshine or a ruder breath 
 of wind or a heavier fall of rain than ordinary 
 might do this — or were the wind to prove con- 
 tinually boisterous at the critical time, and dis- 
 perse the pollen so that it should be wasted, 
 the whole produce of the fields would fail. 
 This is the great risk to which every year our 
 corn-crops are exposed; showing to us how 
 literally man's life hangs upon a thread — upon 
 a breath of wind. 
 
 Then, as we approach the days of ripening 
 and ingathering, how often is the weather 
 so inclement that the corn is in danger of be- 
 ing leveled to the ground, or its grains thrashed 
 out of it by the beating of the winds ! How 
 often does the stormy weather prevent the 
 reaper from cutting down the dead ripe corn, 
 
TABLE PREPAKED IN PEESENCE OF FOES. 19 
 
 or the belated stooks from drying sufficiently 
 to be taken into the stack-yard, so that the 
 straw rots in the field, and the grain sprouts 
 with the noxious greenness of a second growth ! 
 The design of nature is benevolent in sending 
 these autumnal storms, for they are necessary 
 to strip the trees of their decaying leaves and 
 their ripe fruits, and to rot them in the soak- 
 ing ground, that the imprisoned seeds may 
 escape and find a suitable and naturally ma- 
 nured soil in which to grow. But this wise 
 provision of nature to facilitate the dispersion 
 and growth of the ripened fruits and seeds of 
 the earth often proves disastrous to our corn- 
 crops when they are about to be gathered into 
 the barn. We step between nature and her 
 purpose, snatch the corn from its appointed 
 destiny as the seed of a future crop, and con- 
 vert it into human food ; and thus diverting a 
 law of nature into a new and unnatural chan- 
 nel, we cannot always expect that the weather 
 which would be favorable to the natural pro- 
 cess should be equally favorable to the artifi- 
 cial. Our wheels and nature's wheels are thus 
 often out of gear ; they frequently clash. 
 
 Then, further, the growth of our corn has 
 many enemies of the animal and vegetable 
 world to encounter. It has to enter into the 
 great struggle of hf e, in which every plant as 
 
20 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 well as animal must fight for its footing, and 
 the weakest goes to the wall. It has to con- 
 tend with its own kind, for the law of nature 
 is to spread every plant as widely as possible ; 
 and therefore weeds, thorns, and thistles cum- 
 ber the ground, and in their growth endeavor 
 to choke and starve the corn and leave them 
 solely in possession. These have to be rooted 
 out with unremitting care, else the corn, which 
 is a highly artificial plant, would speedily give 
 way, become unfruitful, and perish utterly be- 
 fore the increase of wild plants naturally far 
 better adapted to the soil. There are birds 
 that eat the seed as soon as it is sown in the 
 field; there are caterpillars and insects that 
 prey upon the tender blade; and, worst of all, 
 there are rusts and mildews that grow with its 
 growth, and appear only when the full corn is 
 in the ear, and turn the nutritious grain into 
 black dust and ashes. Everywhere these in- 
 sidious parasites, possessing the power of in- 
 definite multiplication, lie in wait to frustrate 
 the hopes of the farmer. Season after season, 
 as regularly as the corn gi'ows, so regularly do 
 these baleful parasites appear. They have been 
 at certain times epidemic, and have repeatedly 
 caused famines in our own and in other coun- 
 tries. They have been fearfully and wonder- 
 fully made for their work. They possess va- 
 
TABLE PREPARED IN PRESENCE OF FOES. 21 
 
 rious modes of propagating themselves, so 
 that when one method fails another may be 
 developed in its place. Their seeds are pro- 
 duced in incalculable myriads. The atmo- 
 sphere is charged with them ; the soil of every 
 field is thick with them. Almost every grain 
 of corn is found, under the microscope, to have 
 one or more seeds adhering to its husk. And 
 in every black head of smut among the corn 
 we see, as it were, "the hidings of God's 
 power." We see how easily, if it so pleased 
 him, he could let loose these destructive agen- 
 cies to break the staff of bread and cover the 
 land with desolation and woe. It is a remark- 
 able fact that domesticated plants and animals, 
 which man has cultivated artificially for his 
 own use, are possessed of delicate constitu- 
 tions, and are therefore more prone to the at- 
 tacks of numerous enemies than plants and 
 animals in a wild state. We have developed 
 the potato, the sugar-cane, and the corn un- 
 naturally, and the unnatural growth which is 
 most useful for our purposes is from nature's 
 point of view a diseased condition ; and, there- 
 fore, she hastens with her insect and fungi 
 scavengers to clear it off the face of the earth 
 as speedily as possible. You see, therefore, 
 that, in fighting with these insect and vege- 
 table foes in growing our food, we have to con- 
 
22 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 tend with the great law of nature itself, that 
 the weak and diseased mnst perish. 
 
 But the list of enemies in the presence of 
 which our table is prepared is not yet ex- 
 hausted. There are hvimaii enemies as 
 well as natural. There are circumstances 
 of human selfishness, wrong, and injustice 
 that interfere sadly with the full joy of har- 
 vest. There are competitions and rights which 
 restrict the cultivation of the soil; there are 
 commercial interests that cause unequal dis- 
 tribution of its produce. The farmer's diffi- 
 culties do not end with the gathering in of the 
 crop ; he has to encounter the difficulties of the 
 market. In Eastern lands, where the govern- 
 ment is weak, the farmer has no security that 
 he will reap the harvest he has sown. He sows 
 in tears, because a stronger man than he may 
 take the fruit of his labors. Thus we see that 
 the harvest will not give us its blessings with- 
 out a stern struggle with hostile elements ; and 
 that man himself, in his grasping selfishness, 
 places many obstacles in the way of nature pre- 
 paring her table for us. And much as we may 
 deplore the continual recurrence of this strug- 
 gle, we cannot lose sight of the fact that it has 
 a beneficial moral effect upon human char- 
 acter. God meant it to be educative. Grod 
 meant that the terms upon which individuals 
 
TABLE PREPARED IN PRESENCE OF FOES. 23 
 
 and nations hold their lease of life should be 
 unremitting labor from year to year. For 
 much wickedness is thus prevented which 
 idleness would be sure to produce, and much 
 discipline is thus afforded for powers of body 
 and mind which would otherwise rust in in- 
 glorious ease or be destroyed by vice. Man 
 earning and eating his bread in the sweat of 
 his face raises himseK in the scale of intelli- 
 gence, and exalts and purifies his moral nature. 
 And in having thus to grow his food amid a 
 continual struggle with hostile forces, he is 
 taught in the most impressive way the solemn 
 lesson of his dependence upon Grod. 
 
 2. But I pass on to consider the table 
 which is thus prepared before us. This 
 table is wisely adapted to our necessities as 
 human beings. Our food does not consist of 
 roots, for these are too imperfectly organized 
 to yield all the ingredients that man needs for 
 his proper sustenance. Roots cannot be stored 
 or kept sufficiently long to last from year to 
 year, and thus they do not afford a basis of 
 food for the leisure and stability of circum- 
 stances which man requires for the cultiva- 
 tion of the higher arts of life. They cannot 
 be transported long distances without waste 
 and injury, and thus the necessities of one 
 place be supplied by the abundance of another. 
 
24 THAKKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 It was attempted to build up society in Ireland 
 upon the cultivation of a single root, and it led 
 to laziness, improvidence, and an ignoble con- 
 tentment with the lowest form of human liv- 
 ing, and ended — we cannot help thinking, by 
 a merciful judgment of Heaven — in a famine 
 that was most disastrous at the time, but out 
 of which came, in the long run, rich and last- 
 ing issues of good. Neither, on the other hand, 
 does our food consist of fruits spontaneously 
 produced by long-lived trees, requiring no toil 
 or care or forethought on the part of man. 
 The natives of countries that depend for their 
 subsistence upon a,ny wild fruits they may find 
 are afflicted with numerous special diseases in 
 consequence, lead a low life of careless ease 
 and indulgence, and continue children in body 
 and mind all their lives. Not in roots or in 
 fruits does God place the staple food of man, 
 but on the highest part of an annual grass that 
 grows and ripens and fades every year, and 
 every season needs to be sown and reaped 
 anew. For lessons of faith and trust have to 
 be taught to man, and habits of industry have 
 to be acquired by him, upon which the unfold- 
 ing of his great destiny depends, and which 
 nothing but the cultivation of the grass of the 
 field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast 
 into the oven, could enable him to learn. In 
 
TABLE PREPAEED IN PRESENCE OF FOES. 25 
 
 the various corn-plants he finds all the best 
 constituents of nourishment and vigor. They 
 can be stored for a time of scarcity ; they can 
 be transported without injury to the most dis- 
 tant places. Some form or other of them can 
 be cultivated in every part of the world ; and 
 on the basis of security which they afford a 
 stable society can be built up, by which the 
 highest arts of life and the noblest forms of 
 religion may be developed. This is the foun- 
 dation of our complicated civilization. God 
 has ordained that the scepter of the world 
 should be a straw ; and were our corn-fields to 
 fail throughout the world all the vast resources 
 and revenues of the world would not avail to 
 stay the terrible consequences. The rich and 
 the poor would be overwhelmed with a com- 
 mon ruin. All the other riches in the world, 
 failing the riches of our golden harvest-fields, 
 were as worthless as the flash-notes of the 
 forger. 
 
 And what a table is thus spread for us every 
 year ! On the table of the wilderness is spread 
 spontaneously a plentiful feast of grass, wild 
 fruits, and herbs for the sustenance of the 
 dumb, helpless creatures that can neither sow 
 nor reap nor gather into barns. On the table 
 of the cultivated haunts of man are spread, 
 year after year, the golden corn-fields which 
 
26 THANKSGIVmG SEKMONS. 
 
 witness to human industry, prudence, and fore- 
 sight. The influences of the sky and earth have 
 conspired to produce these corn-fields; the 
 work of man and the cooperation of God have 
 led to this beneficial result. The stones of the 
 waste have been slowly and gradually con- 
 verted into bread. The many enemies that 
 opposed the process have been successfully 
 overcome. Beneath the patient heavens the 
 miracle of the multiplication of the loaves has 
 been slowly and gradually prepared over the 
 long summer months. What sacred memories 
 gather round the table thus so richly fur- 
 nished ! They take us back to the days when 
 the world was young, and all men labored in 
 the harvest-field and counted its joys the typi- 
 cal joy of life. They link the ages and gener- 
 ations together ; and we feel that we are com- 
 passed about with a great cloud of witnesses 
 who have enjoyed the annual harvests of the 
 earth, from the first ripe crop that grew above 
 the grave of the old world — the surety of all 
 harvests since. 
 
 3. And this leads me to notice, in the third 
 place, who it is that has prepared this 
 tahle for us. The harvest is the subject of a 
 divine covenant engagement. Our corn-fields 
 grow and ripen securely under the arch of the 
 rainbow, which is God's signature in the hea- 
 
TABLE PREPARED IN PRESENCE OF FOES. 27 
 
 vens ratifying the covenant that seed-time and 
 harvest shall never fail. Never once has the 
 pledge given five thousand years ago been 
 violated. Famines have occurred again and 
 again in the history of the race, but never sim- 
 ultaneously over the whole world; for when 
 there was a dearth in Palestine there was corn 
 in Egypt. Our table is thus prepared by God's 
 own hand ; and the miracle of the multiplica- 
 tion of the loaves by Jesus was wrought to 
 show to us who it is that by the ordinary laws 
 of nature, and the ordinary operations of hu- 
 man toil and skill, procures for us our annual 
 harvest. The common event hides from us 
 the divine hand ; it is clothed in the garment 
 of second causes ; but the miracle is wrought 
 to strip away this clothing of second causes, to 
 make bare the Almighty arm and reveal to us 
 its working and our dependence upon it. He 
 who rained manna directly from heaven, he 
 who fed the multitude at Capernaum, is the 
 same who season after season raises the seed- 
 corn into the waving harvest. It is his power 
 that makes the corn germinate ; that preserves 
 its growing and ripening from the storm and 
 the drought, the blight and the insect, from 
 the attack of all the numerous and formidable 
 enemies that are leagued against it. The pe- 
 tition in the Lord's Prayer implies this. We 
 
28 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 ask our Father in heaven to give us our daily 
 bread, as if it came direct from his hand, as if 
 we ignored altogether the part we ourselves 
 have to perform in producing and earning 
 it. And in reality in every human operation 
 man's part is utterly trifling compared with 
 Grod's. Without his power and blessing the 
 fields would yield no harvest, the benefi- 
 cent operations of nature would be frustrated. 
 Without his power and blessing the arrange- 
 ments and conditions of human society would 
 be so disordered that even if there were food, 
 it would fail in many instances in reaching its 
 proper destination. Without his power and 
 blessing the bread itself would minister disease 
 and weakness, and not health and strength, 
 and the table of the unthankful prove a snare. 
 And when we ask God to give us day by day 
 our daily bread, we simply ask that Grod would 
 enable us to live from hand to mouth during 
 all our life. We cannot, as beggars living 
 upon God's bounty, ask that our alms may be 
 made sure by his giving us a store now out of 
 which our daily bread may come independently 
 of his own providence. We strive to make 
 ourselves independent of circumstances. By 
 the complicated industries and arrangements 
 of civilized life we seek to secure a fortune or 
 a competency. But the riches of the world, 
 
TABLE PREPARED IN PRESENCE OF FOES. 29 
 
 as I have said, are nothing without the neces- 
 saries of life, and these necessaries are preca- 
 rious, and are only given year by year and day 
 by day. We cannot make ourselves indepen- 
 dent, and no amount of wealth can raise us 
 above the enjoyment of a single day's supply. 
 You may accumulate property sufficient to sup- 
 ply you with food all your life, but you cannot 
 accumulate the ability to use that food. You 
 must wait each day for the periodical demands 
 of appetite, or if you attempt to overstep these, 
 you destroy that appetite altogether, and then 
 you are reduced to the same destitution as the 
 very poorest. And though you may feel that 
 you will have enough to eat all your life, how 
 do you know that you will have health to en- 
 joy your food ? To this use of one day's sup- 
 ply the laws of Providence restrict the rich and 
 the poor alike. ' 
 
 4. Once more God has graciously crowned 
 the year with his goodness, and has furnished 
 a table for us, so that there is abundance 
 of food for man and beast. And the mo- 
 mentous question now is. How can we best use 
 this precious gift of God ! We are first of all 
 to partake of it with gratitude, acknowledging 
 God's bounty and our own dependence. We 
 are next to partake of it in faith. The Apostle 
 Paul says that whatever is not of faith is sin, 
 
30 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 and if we eat without faith we are condemned. 
 Christ purchased by his own blood the neces- 
 saries of life as well as the blessings of grace 
 from the forfeiture of the fall, and bestows 
 them upon all who believe as covenant bless- 
 ings. The man who uses the necessaries of 
 life simply as the fruit of his own industry or 
 skill acts as the animals do; and having no 
 recognition of Christ's work in them, they 
 deepen his animality and worldliness. But he 
 who receives and uses them in faith remembers 
 how they were forfeited, and how they are re- 
 stored. They are memorials of his sin and of 
 his redemption ; and they come to him filtered 
 and strained from all the evils of sin, and sweet- 
 ened with the blessing that maketh truly rich, 
 and with which no sorrow is added, and prove 
 means of grace to his soul. 
 
 5. Then, further, the fruits of the harvest 
 should be used in the work and for the 
 glory of God. They came forth from God, 
 and they come to man, that through man and 
 by man they might return to God again ; that 
 the leisure, the health, the strength, the bless- 
 ings, which they impart may be used in the 
 cause of righteousness, and in preparing the 
 way of the Lord upon the earth. What was 
 meant by the dedication of the first-fruits of 
 the harvest to God in the tabernacle and 
 
TABLE PREPAEED IN PRESENCE OF FOES. 31 
 
 temple of old but just this: that as the first- 
 fruits were thus hallowed, so the whole harvest 
 should be hallowed, and should be used only 
 for holy purposes 1 They are presented to God 
 in order to show that all the common neces- 
 saries of life which they represent are to be 
 sanctified by you in the daily common use you 
 make of them ; that whether you eat or drink, 
 or whatsoever you do, you may do all to the 
 glory of Grod. And as they thus unite you to 
 God, so let them also unite you more closely to 
 one another. You are children of one family, 
 sitting at one table provided by the same lov- 
 ing Father ; why, then, should there be so much 
 of selfish struggle and competition, so much of 
 unnatural covetousness and unloving acquisi- 
 tiveness, in the daily life of those who get day 
 by day their daily bread from God's own hand 1 
 Eedeemed by the same Saviour from the same 
 spu'itual hunger and poverty and death, de- 
 livered from the same enemies, should you not 
 in carrying out your own prayer — not "give 
 me," but " give us this day our daily bread " — 
 seek to help one another in all things, to pro- 
 mote the welfare of one another, that so the 
 spirit of Jesus may be developed in you, and 
 you may grow together into greater likeness to 
 your Father in heaven 1 
 
THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND 
 THE BROTHEEHOOD OF MAN. 
 
 BY THE REV. CHARLES NEIL, M.A. 
 
 ■' He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and 
 sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." — Matthew v. 45. 
 
 In the Bible frequent use is made of the 
 realms of nature for the purpose of furnishing 
 bold and powerful illustrations, as well as for 
 the enforcing of important religious doctrines. 
 Such a method of instruction is in danger of 
 being somewhat overlooked in days like our 
 own, when the stream of human life is irresisti- 
 bly discharging itself from the country into the 
 city, and the sights and sounds of civilization 
 have an increasingly strong tendency to draw 
 off the mind from the devout contemplation of 
 the glorious handiworks of God. This neglect 
 is much to be deplored ; because for the com- 
 plete education of man all the books of Grod — 
 the Book of Nature no less than the Book of 
 Revelation — require to be religiously studied. 
 Everywhere and at all times we should possess 
 
 32 
 
THE FATHEKHOOD OF GOD. 33 
 
 an observant eye and an adoring spirit. To 
 all alike nature may in a very real sense be the 
 chart of Grod, the mirror of the divine attri- 
 butes, and a religious volume replete with les- 
 sons for daily guidance : 
 
 " In contemplation of created tMngs, 
 By steps we may ascend to God/' 
 
 Not only is the substitution of bricks and 
 mortar for green fields and " the philosopher's 
 garden" unfavorable conditions to that de- 
 lightful art of meditation which makes truth 
 always ready and present to us, but the study 
 of the physical sciences, frequently conducted 
 without due reverence, as well as the confusion 
 of thought respecting the law of phenomena 
 displayed both in common parlance and also in 
 learned treatises, have prevented men from ris- 
 ing easily from nature to nature's Grod. To-day 
 it is no very easy task, even if we can aspiringly 
 fix the mind upon created things, to scan them 
 with the simple faith and childlike interest of 
 our non-scientific but reverent forefathers. 
 
 Around our generation a materiahstic spirit 
 hangs like a distorting atmosphere, and causes 
 nature and God to appear almost one and the 
 same, and Grod to be regarded so absolutely 
 everywhere, and so perfectly identified with 
 everything, that he is really nowhere person- 
 
34 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 ally present as the upholder of anything. Or 
 else, if modern thought does not deify the ob- 
 jects of nature, it practically does the laws of 
 nature. 
 
 As a preliminary step, then, to religious re- 
 flection upon the works of God we must study 
 to remove the haze created by the want of 
 clearness of definition in modern thought. We. 
 need to reassert the old but forgotten truth that 
 the primary and ultimate division of thought 
 is found in the ideas of Grod and nature. What 
 is not nature is God, the Triune God, Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost ; what is not God is na- 
 ture in some or other of its manifold kingdom. 
 God may for purposes of worship be viewed as 
 standing alone, dwelling in light which no man 
 can approach unto ; while nature should ever 
 and anon be regarded as the object of God's 
 creative and sustaining energy : 
 
 ''Nature is but a name for an effect, 
 Whose cause is God." 
 
 The so-called laws of natiu'e are not in 
 natiu'e, but in the mind of Him who has 
 power over all nature. Sun, moon, and 
 stars ; hail, rain, and vapor ; the known and 
 unknown fructifying powers in the universe, 
 exist because God exists and " feeds the secret 
 fire by which the mighty process is main- 
 
THE FATHEEHOOD OF GOD. 35 
 
 tained." The death (if such a thought could be 
 conceived) of the Creator would be the instant 
 death of all creaturehood and the absolute an- 
 nihilation of everything. The worlds moving 
 in their appointed courses, and the seasons re- 
 turning in their regular succession and won- 
 derful changes, are the result of the ever-as- 
 serted will and ever-operative power of the 
 Supreme Ruler of the universe. Every phe- 
 nomena of nature at each stage of existence is 
 the revelation of the Divine Mind, and pro- 
 claims the constant outgoings of divine energy, 
 albeit, in a world enveloped in mystery, in a 
 world designed as a stage for man's mental and 
 moral training, and in a world where only part 
 — a very small part — of the divine purposes are 
 discernible, there must necessarily be apparent 
 contradictions to general principles. Nay, a 
 partial and hasty observer might easily be led 
 to draw faulty and positively false conclusions 
 respecting the divine attributes. Still, despite 
 volcanoes, wild tornadoes, pestilential marshes, 
 poisoned vegetation around peopled cities, the 
 blazing prairie, the desolating and dark forest 
 into which the sunlight never penetrates, and 
 despite the cries of pain from this Eden of ours, 
 yet we can read in unmistakable characters the 
 universal benevolence of God in the daily bless- 
 ings showered down alike upon his thankful 
 
36 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 or unthankful, his loving or rebellious off- 
 spring. " He maketh his sun to shine on the 
 evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the 
 just and on the unjust." 
 
 We have not hesitated to dwell thus upon 
 the relation of God and nature. Correct views 
 upon this subject, no less than upon the rela- 
 tion of God to ourselves, are helpful for the 
 forming of a true estimate of daily mercies. 
 To use the sickle to the richly laden and golden 
 ears of corn, to fill our garners with plenty, to 
 partake of the varied fruits of the earth, to re- 
 joice in the harvest, and to view all the pro- 
 cesses of nature as due to the laws in nature 
 and to the laws in the mind of God, and as the 
 results of a self-adjusting instrument, and not 
 of the working of an ever-living and ever-lov- 
 ing Father, will as surely eat out the spirit of 
 worship as if we substituted either the pan- 
 theon of the cultured heathen or the fetish of 
 the uncultured savage in place of our God and 
 Saviour. 
 
 God, who knows what is in those made 
 by himself in his own image, does not pro- 
 vide for our necessities by a vast and huge 
 machine called nature, which continues to 
 work by itself by a once-for-all imparted mo- 
 tion. Either to identify God with his works, 
 or to remove God so far from them that he is 
 
THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. 37 
 
 in no real sense a personal God, not only dis- 
 honors him, but brings actual and definite loss 
 to ourselves. If we suppose, for instance, that 
 food is produced })y an automatic, unlovable 
 machine, why, men will eat it without giving 
 of thanks, forfeit a large measure of enjoyment, 
 and lack the highest incentives to right living 
 and brotherly feeling. In every-day life no 
 possessions are more valued by right-minded 
 persons than those which are the tangible ex- 
 pressions of the personal and affectionate re- 
 gard of friends. Applying this principle to the 
 gifts at harvest-tide, what rich stores of delight 
 does a Christian, in contradistinction to the 
 mere scientist, secure, in the fact that in pre- 
 cious grain, welcome fruit, and autumnal rich 
 tints he can trace for himself, his family and 
 his friends, and the world at large, the loving 
 care and personal forethought of his Heavenly 
 Father, without whom there would have been 
 no rain to soften the earth for the growth of 
 the seed, and no sun year by year to ripen the 
 harvest with its rejuvenating gladness I 
 
 This thought can be further pursued with 
 profit. To connect the supply of our daily wants 
 with the active and direct working of God for 
 his children enables us to obtain proper 
 views about our proprietary rights. We 
 are not the irresponsible owners under a ma- 
 
38 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 terialistic sway, but the responsible recipients 
 under the rule of a wise and beneficent Sover- 
 eign ; we are the stewards and trustees rather 
 than absolute possessors. True, we may use 
 our blessings for ourselves, but we must not 
 use them arbitrarily or capriciously, but with 
 due regard to the will of God as faintly discerni- 
 ble by the twilight of nature and clearly re- 
 vealed in the written Word. We must restrain 
 our selfish and indulge our benevolent affec- 
 tions. We must make some definite acknow- 
 ledgment, by our gifts to others, for the gifts 
 which Grod, not for our deserts, but in his good- 
 ness, hath put into our hands. We must not 
 permit the cares of life, the friendships of life, 
 or the pleasures of sense to so absorb our time 
 as to prevent the performance of kindly offices 
 to our less favored neighbors. Nor must we 
 make strict justice and distrustful calculations 
 the arbiters of our charities. Freely we have 
 received from the common Father of all, freely 
 we must give to our brethren. 
 
 Say what men may, " brotherhood," in 
 any real sense of the term, is the creation 
 and child of Christianity. No doubt the 
 idea has become more familiar to men's minds 
 by commercial treaties, the easy facility of in- 
 tercourse afforded by means of rapid and cheap 
 traveling, by the more definite assertion over 
 
THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. 39 
 
 all the civilized world of the rights of man as 
 man. Nevertheless it is a snare and delusion 
 to suppose that these national tokens would 
 have existed in their present degree but for 
 the influence of Christianity directly and in- 
 directly exerted ; while for Christians it would 
 be a sign of spiritual ignorance and want of 
 faith to imagine that the brotherhood of man- 
 kind can securely rest upon an accidental, util- 
 itarian, or political basis. 
 
 The Fatherhood of Grod and the brotherhood 
 of man, belief in Christ as the Elder Brother 
 and the attainment of the highest possible hu- 
 man culture, are pairs of truths indissolubly 
 united and inseparably linked together. The 
 Fatherhood of God, understood in its Christian 
 and full significance, is the principle to secure 
 steady, onward progress of the world, and the 
 remedy for the constantly occurring practical 
 evils which arise out of the altered and ever- 
 altering phases of life in a restless age. It is 
 the duty of the patriotic political economist, 
 as well as of the practical preacher of the gos- 
 pel, to proclaim far and wide that the Father- 
 hood of God is the real point of contact be- 
 tween religious and social movements, and 
 between secular and Christian philanthropy. 
 The teaching of Christianity, which was not 
 really practical enough in its scope, accounts 
 
40 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 in a great measure for the alienation of the 
 sons of toil from existing religions establish- 
 ments. The truer and more comprehensive 
 idea of Christian life now gaining ground is 
 one of the happy omens of our future welfare. 
 There are points of contact between all de- 
 partments of life, and each depends upon the 
 other for complete and healthy development. 
 The onward march of civilization is only pos- 
 sible when progress is made simultaneously in 
 all branches of knowledge and in all spheres of 
 life. Hence natural prosperity depends upon 
 quickened life in all directions. We stand 
 in need of leaders of Christianity who will 
 make it clear, beyond possibility of mistake, 
 that when they bid men say, "Our Father 
 which art in heaven," they are willing practi- 
 cally and fully to give expression to the prin- 
 ciple of brotherhood and sisterhood involved 
 in this opening address of the Lord's Prayer. 
 On the other hand, the leaders of social and 
 political movements must learn not to fondly 
 dream that the regeneration of the world can 
 be effected without acknowledgment of a per- 
 sonal God, and of the true principle of the 
 Fatherhood of God, which receives its right 
 interpretation alone in the incarnation of Jesus 
 Christ, who is at once the all-sufficient sacrifice 
 
THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. 41 
 
 for our sins and the only perfect example for 
 all sorts and conditions of men. 
 
 To the words of our Lord let us, then, go for 
 principles which should be the guide at once 
 of the patriotic philanthropist, politician, sci- 
 entist, and religionist. 
 
 The text accentuates and emphasizes the 
 comprehensive as well as the practical char- 
 acter of our Pleavenly Father's benevo- 
 lence, and holds it up for the imitation of his 
 sons. Inattention to this lesson in the past 
 explains much of the church's failure. Atten- 
 tion to it in the present is necessary if we de- 
 sire future national blessing. Its neglect for- 
 merly has been perilous ; its neglect now under 
 the strained relationships of society would be 
 well-nigh fatal. Until lately it was not a rec- 
 ognized principle that it is the bounden duty 
 of every church that assembles for worship, in 
 accordance with the Master's direct and express 
 orders, to do its part and duty in the fur- 
 therance of mission efforts at home and abroad. 
 Until lately it was the shame of the church of 
 Christ that it allowed vast masses to congre- 
 gate in poorer neighborhoods without ade- 
 quate spiritual provision and brotherly and 
 kindly instruction. Until lately, though God 
 caused the sun to shine to gladden all hearts. 
 
42 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 yet we, liis children, did next to nothing to 
 brighten the surroundings of those toilers for 
 our necessities, and in many cases for our lux- 
 uries, who passed monotonous and insufferably 
 dull lives, not always through their own fault, 
 but far oftener through strange misfortunes, 
 unbrotherly exactions, and sometimes through 
 unequal laws made in the interest of the fa- 
 vored one at the expense of the forgotten ninety 
 and nine. Until lately, in our appeals to our 
 struggling brethren, we put forward the terrors 
 of the law rather than the love of the gospel, 
 and seemed to wonder that cold and often life- 
 less presentations of saving truth and repul- 
 sive caricatures of the divine character did not 
 win them to Christ. Until lately we thought 
 that authority rather than brotherly sympathy 
 would enable the church to hold her own and 
 gallantly speed her way. Things are now 
 happily changing, but there is considerable 
 room for improvement; and, be it remem- 
 bered, our personal responsibility for better- 
 ing them has greatly increased during the last 
 few years, when enlightened and sounder ideas 
 of Christian brotherhood are disseminated. 
 
 Among the sociological " finds " of the cen- 
 tury we might safely name the fact of the 
 necessity of personal contact between soul and 
 soul as the true secret of effecting the highest 
 
THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. 43 
 
 and noblest results for the social and spiritual 
 regeneration of mankind. Stately churches, 
 sumptuous services, and eloquent sermons 
 exert a mighty influence; but in order to 
 make the religion of Christ find its way 
 through the intricacies of courts and alleys, 
 from cellar to garret, to the nooks and corners 
 of the hitherto spiritually uncared-for spots of 
 our cities, there must be more brotherly and 
 sisterly service. For the success of aggressive 
 Christianity this is the one prime crying need. 
 Without it Christianity cannot become the re- 
 ligion of the masses; with it, if sufficiently 
 Christ-like in character, there are no achieve- 
 ments beyond the power of the church. In 
 proportion as love is self-sacrificing and sym- 
 pathy seen to be a thing not far off, but some- 
 thing near at hand, in that proportion will the 
 stoutest hearts be broken, the most degraded 
 lives be reformed, and souls apparently lost 
 beyond recovery be won to Christ. In all or- 
 ganizations for political and social purposes, 
 no less than for moral and religious, the lesson 
 is being slowly but surely learned, that the 
 material may affect the material, but that mind 
 can alone affect mind, and personal contact and 
 close intercourse are necessary for allegiance 
 and loyalty to the cause which is advocated. 
 No institution can now hope to survive as a 
 
44 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 living and powerful factor among civilized 11:1- 
 tions by the might and majesty of the most 
 perfect machinery, unless worked by living 
 and devoted agents v»^ho are prepared to make 
 the necessary sacrifices and to shirk none of 
 their resjjonsibilities. 
 
 The truth, indeed, has at last gone forth in 
 our churches, that the practical Christian who 
 brings the power of a loving and warm heart 
 to instruct the ignorant, clothe the naked, feed 
 the hungry, make the widow's heart leap for 
 joy, befriend the friendless, does more infinite 
 good than the learned and selfish recluse, and 
 the formal professor, boastful of his religious 
 privilege, but forgetful of Lazarus at his door- 
 step. The truth, however, has not yet gone 
 sufiiciently abroad, that all omitted expres- 
 sions of the brotherhood of man as taught by 
 the Fatherhood of God are, in the case of 
 Christian people, as criminal and injurious to 
 the world as breaches of the second table of 
 the Decalogue. 
 
 There is another idea in regard to the benev- 
 olence of Grod which is in the text held up for 
 our example: in our services of love Tve 
 must not be fitful nor too rig^idly fixed. 
 There must be a variety of ivisely directed^ 
 carefully planned^ and well-sustained efforts. 
 In business concerns the desire to succeed, 
 
THE FATHEKHOOD OF GOD. 45 
 
 when really powerfully operative, suggests, so 
 to speak, by intuition the necessary and suc- 
 cessive steps to be taken to crown efforts with 
 complete success. So ought it to be in matters 
 relating to the kingdom of God. Real love and 
 intense zeal for souls ought to make us happy 
 in the discovery of ideas for doing good, and 
 fertile in resources for usefully carrying them 
 out. Moreover, never let it be forgotten that 
 in Christian understanding we have one im- 
 mense advantage. The promise of the Father 
 is ours as well as that of the apostles : the Holy 
 Spirit is present in pentecostal fullness to guide 
 us into all the necessary truths for the right dis- 
 charge of our duties and responsibilities in the 
 days we live. Vast and appalling may seem 
 the problems before the church, viewed either 
 in its individual or corporate aspect, but in the 
 sphere of our influence let the sunshine and the 
 rain descend in due proportions, and there will 
 be a glorious ingathering into the harvest of 
 the nineteenth century before this last decade 
 finally closes. Simpler ways of preaching the 
 truth, more catholicity of benevolence, fuller 
 belief in the Fatherly love of God for all the 
 race as evidenced in the gift of his Son, more 
 tangible brotherly sympathy, and deeper striv- 
 ing to bring back those outside the church, and, 
 highest grace of all, to love our enemies — tbese 
 
46 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 are some of the practical lessons suggested by 
 the teaching of the text, and demanded imper- 
 atively by these times, in which there are such 
 wonderful facilities for brotherly and sisterly 
 service, while at the same time such festering 
 sores to be healed, such ill-will existing between 
 various orders of society where good- will might 
 long ago have reigned triumphantly. 
 
 Too httle, indeed, has been thought or 
 spoken or written about the fact that amid all 
 the glories of religion, true benevolence, ani- 
 mated by Christian motive and directed by 
 Christian ends, is the most resplendent ; in the 
 power of all to be exercised ; perhaps the most 
 crowning evidence to the world in favor of the 
 religion of Christ ; and certain in no wise to go 
 unrewarded. It is thus that we should prove 
 ourselves to be true sons and daughters of 
 our Father, whose glorious sun shines for all 
 classes, and whose refreshing rain enriches all 
 our lands. 
 
THE PARABLE OF HARVEST. 
 
 BY THE REV. W. J. DAWSON. 
 
 " Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock 
 of corn cometh in his season." — Job v. 26. 
 
 The beauty of this text is greatly heightened 
 by the more literal translation, " like as a shock 
 of wheat that is lifted up." It is a perfect vis- 
 ion of the closing days of harvest. The fields 
 are reaped, the mountains rise blue and clear 
 in the setting sun, the reapers bind the last 
 sheaf, and it is lifted into the heavy wagons 
 with shouts of joy and songs of harvest-home. 
 It is the consummation of the year : the last 
 triumphant act in a long drama of skill and 
 patience. Many months before the sower fore- 
 saw this hour, when he went out in the bleak 
 winds to sow the seed, and ever since then 
 Grod and man have been busy to produce the 
 harvest. The heavens share the triumph, for 
 they sent the rain ; and the sun, for it pierced 
 the hidden seed with glowing arrows ; and the 
 soil, for it held it warm as in a mother's hand ; 
 in its quickening the earth conspired, and in 
 
 47 
 
48 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 its ingathering the earth rejoices. Had one 
 single actor in the drama failed, all had failed ; 
 rain without sun would have bred corruption, 
 and sun without rain would have ruined all, 
 and all the forces of God without man's help 
 would have been impotent and insufficient. 
 The corn-field is the meeting-place of God 
 and man; they keep tryst among the golden 
 sheaves as of old in the cool of Paradise. God 
 depends upon man, for the corn, unlike other 
 growths of nature, must be sown and watched 
 and tended, if it would thrive ; it will not grow 
 wild. And man depends upon God, for he 
 watereth the hills from his chambers, and 
 maketh the valleys green with the springing 
 thereof, and from first to last shields and 
 blesses the delicate life of the corn, in which 
 is the life of man. Every harvest-field is a 
 place of reconciliation between God and man ; 
 it is the temple where his Fatherly presence 
 may be felt ; it is the point of accord where 
 nature meets her human tenant, and crowns 
 him with the glory of her sunshine and the 
 benediction of her peace, and thus bids him 
 rejoice in the victory of order, of law, and of 
 love. 
 
 1. The first parable of harvest, then, is 
 that liarvest is Grod's memorial and the 
 parable of his love. 
 
THE PABABLE OF HARVEST. 49 
 
 His promise is that, while the bow is in the 
 heaven, springtime and harvest shall not fail. 
 No year comes when that bridge of trembling 
 beauty is not thrown across the firmament, 
 and when the rain and the light, who are the 
 master architects and artists which produce 
 it, do not bless the earth and make it fruitful. 
 And God sets the bow for a sign, a bright 
 watcher or minister, to declare his good-will 
 toward us. 
 
 This may seem a very old or a very obvious 
 legend, but at all events it is a truth, and one 
 which we do well to remember. I am not sur- 
 prised if we who dwell in cities, or even the 
 bulk of people in our villages, do not remem- 
 ber it, and do not care to ponder it. We have 
 long ceased to live upon the fruit of our own 
 soil. A good harvest or a bad harvest makes 
 really small difference to us : are not our ships 
 scouring every sea, and does not the whole 
 earth yield us tribute 1 Our harvest is reaped 
 in a hundred lands by men who never knew 
 us and never heard of us. It makes scant 
 difference to us that our corn-fields do not 
 whiten fast enough and do not yield much : 
 the weather of the whole world must conspire 
 against us before men cry for bread in our 
 streets. We have taken steam for our part- 
 ner, and he puts out his giant hands and gath- 
 
50 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 ers on a thousand hills what our lands may not 
 give should harvests fail, and carries over 
 leagues of foaming waste the world's harvest 
 to our doors. It is well it should be so ; but 
 great as steam is, there is still a God, and we 
 are still dependent on him. It is well all this 
 should be ; but because we do not watch over 
 our wheat-fields with fear, let us not forget 
 that we are still fed from the hand of the Most 
 High. There is great danger among us both 
 of the callousness of prosperity and the secu- 
 rity of presumption. We are no longer brought 
 close to God in the tilling of the soil as our 
 fathers were, and therefore we are no longer 
 made to feel that, work as we will, we must 
 wait for him to loosen the bands of the clouds 
 and open the windows of heaven : the uncer- 
 tainties, the despondencies, the eagerness of 
 hope and fear common to all tillers of the soil 
 a hundred years ago, are gone for us. Yet we 
 cannot altogether ignore God and be our own 
 Providence ; the harvest is still his great me- 
 morial, his high and sacred sign of Fatherly 
 care. 
 
 The wheat-harvests of the world are miracu- 
 lous. In the East it is the one supreme event 
 of the year. Take a picture which explains it. 
 Look at that group of bronzed men standing 
 by the river's bank. With what eagerness 
 
THE PAEABLE OF HAKVEST. 51 
 
 they watch the great stream as it flows along, 
 and how intently they mark the scale of inches 
 on the post which measures its depth ! What 
 are they doing 1 They stand beside the Nile, 
 and are waiting for its rise. On that rise every- 
 thing depends : the food, the comfort, the exis- 
 tence of a people. Every inch registered on 
 that Nilometer is bread for thousands, and the 
 great flood bears with it from the far places of 
 the Dark Continent healing for the nations. 
 For many hundred years it has not failed, but 
 not the less each year the banks are lined with 
 anxious watchers, who wait and hope, for 
 whom God pours out the floods in mountain 
 depths a thousand leagues away, and whose 
 meal will be thus prepared in due season. 
 
 Or look again. The scene is western India. 
 For months the land has lain under the fierce 
 heat like a parched and panting thing. " All 
 that was green upon its face of grass or herb- 
 age or flowery shrub has withered to a yel- 
 low, sickly hue. The trees droop with dusty 
 branches and faded leaves. The rivers, which 
 were the earth's veins, are dried up, and are 
 seen no longer ; the sun rises in the morning 
 like a globe of fire, and sets at evening like a 
 blood-red furnace. The wells have given out, 
 and the cattle that should work them moan 
 with the heat under the thickest shade. The 
 
52 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 soil of the fields is split up by the burning heat 
 into wide fissures ; the birds are hushed, and 
 the beasts of the forest and jungle cower round 
 the few patches of water remaining in the 
 woodland hollows." For many a week no 
 cloud has broken the blinding wall of the blue 
 sky, but now, look! at last one faint white 
 cloudlet appears to seaward. "Another and 
 another cloudlet appears near it, and the set- 
 ting sun steeps them in flaming crimson, fall- 
 ing itself behind a black bar edged with molten 
 gold." The next day the sky is black, and 
 strange wafts of wind blow. The next night 
 faint lightning gleams in the west, and the low 
 roll of distant thunder is heard. The air is full 
 of sound, the earth seems troubled; strange 
 thrills and tremors run through the bosom of 
 the mighty mother, and then there falls a great 
 silence. The silence is profound and solemn, 
 and the Hindu says that the sea is coming to 
 the help of the earth. Then, at last, in a single 
 instant, the lightning has leaped like an un- 
 sheathed sword from the blackness, the thun- 
 der bursts, and then, O joy! one big, warm 
 raindrop falls, then another, then the tender 
 plash and patter, then the swift, sudden, over- 
 whelming rush of loosened waters, and there 
 is a sound of abundance of rain. It is the first 
 time a drop of rain has fallen since the pre- 
 
THE PARABLE OF HARVEST. 53 
 
 vious autumn, and the news is flashed round 
 the globe : " The monsoon has burst ! " 
 
 And if you have no better explanation of 
 this beneficent rainfall for which the land waits 
 than the learned jangle of atmospheric science, 
 you mistake the means for the source, for its 
 source has been explained long ago when the 
 psalmist said, " These all wait upon thee : thou 
 openest thy hand, they are filled with good: 
 thou hidest thy face, they are troubled : thou 
 sendest forth thy spirit, they are created." 
 That is the first and chief lesson of the har- 
 vest : we are God's pensioners, and he spreads 
 the table in the wilderness. And so far from 
 our independence of our own harvest render- 
 ing us more independent of Grod, it renders us 
 the more dependent. Is it not said that when 
 the men of Bethshemesh were reaping their 
 wheat-harvest they lifted up their eyes and 
 saw the ark of Grod, and rejoiced to see it? 
 They looked up — they, girded for toil and wet 
 with the sweat of labor — and lo ! in the corn- 
 field stood a holy thing, covered with the wings 
 of the golden cherubim and holding the mys- 
 tery of God, and they rejoiced. Even so the 
 ark of God stands in our harvest-fields, more 
 glorious than the autumn light, more golden 
 than the autumn weather. If we lift up our 
 eyes we too shall see it, and our thankfulness 
 
54 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 will take the diviner tone of worship, while 
 we rejoice with the joy of harvest. 
 
 2. Take another parable of harvest. Eliphaz 
 speaks of a full old age, full of records, mem- 
 ories, achievements; and he illustrates it by 
 the corn. Does he not teach in this that the 
 order of the world is use first and beauty 
 second ? There are many things more beau- 
 tiful than corn. True, it has a certain humble 
 grace of its own ; but it is the democratic grace 
 of the worker, not the aristocratic grace of the 
 idler. The corn is rough and simple ; it holds 
 its handful of innocent grain aloft and says, 
 " I have no scent, no beauty that you should 
 desire me, neither the whiteness of the lily nor 
 the odor of the rose, neither the grace of their 
 form nor the exquisiteness of their workman- 
 ship ; but I have what they have not, and what 
 is worth far more than color or fragrance — I 
 have bread for the toiler, and food for the hun- 
 gry." We all acknowledge the force of that 
 claim. You could live in a world without 
 roses, but not in a world without corn ; you 
 like to have perfume, but you must have bread. 
 And if you will measure beauty by use, the 
 corn might say, " Who is more beautiful than 
 I, who kindle health in children's faces and put 
 vigor into men's sinews ? T am better worth 
 the love of men than the lily that withers in a 
 
THE PARABLE OF HARVEST. 55 
 
 day, or the rose out of which is crushed the 
 delicate perfume which at best adds a lux- 
 ury to life and fills only the chambers of the 
 wealthy with its fragrance." That is the claim 
 of the corn. And have you noticed that that 
 is Christ's claim too? He never illustrates 
 himself by a superfluity. He is bread, he is 
 water, he is light, he is life ; he never says that 
 he is fragrance or color or luxury. He is 
 something we all need, just as bread and light 
 and water are the first necessaries of life. You 
 may have confectionery and golden wine and 
 lustrous lamps, but you cannot very well live 
 without bread and water and sunshine. He 
 says that he is not mere beauty, about which 
 opinions differ, and which may be coveted or 
 condemned: there is no beauty in him that 
 men should desire him. But he is the divinest 
 use, the bread of the heart, the water of the 
 soul, the light of life. And that is the true 
 test of any divine life. Are you of use ? Do 
 you feed anybody? Is your life the strength 
 of other lives ? Are you necessary or a super- 
 fluity? Are you mere light froth upon the 
 ocean of society, a mere frivolous inanity, a 
 lounger, a butterfly, an idler? Yours may be 
 beauty of face or the beauty of genius, but the 
 beauty of use is the only true unfading beauty. 
 That alone goes on to its full tale of honored 
 
56 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 years, growing reverend v^itli age, angelic with 
 sanctity, noble with service, till at length such 
 a life comes to the grave, like a full shock of 
 corn which is lifted up, amid grateful acclaim 
 and divine rejoicing. 
 
 3. The harvest is the parahle of life it- 
 self. How little spoils both ! How irrevo- 
 cable the tendencies of each ! A slight error 
 spoils the year's husbandry, as slight errors 
 often spoil a whole life. Throw your seed 
 into the earth; it is then gone out of your 
 power, and earth will not give it back again. 
 She cannot give it back. She will silently re- 
 ceive the impact of your good or evil, the gift 
 of your wheat or tares, and she will reproduce 
 them, so that when the sheaf is bound and lifted 
 up in the light of the last day, both will be there. 
 Youth is wedded to age as spring is wedded to 
 summer and springtime to harvest, and that 
 which a man sows in youth he likewise reaps 
 in manhood. " We sow an act, we reap a habit ; 
 we sow a habit, we reap a character ; we sow a 
 character, we reap a destiny." 
 
 Or look again, and see in the corn an illus- 
 tration of the solidarity of life itself The corn 
 travels the wide world over. It has no local 
 limit, it is cosmopolitan. It is at home in the 
 hands of the Arab eating the few parched ears 
 in his rapid rush across the desert, or in the 
 
THE PAEABLE OF HAEVEST. 57 
 
 hands of the disciples as they pluck it on the 
 Sabbath day, or on wharf or exchange two 
 thousand years later. It has gone into the 
 pyramid in the hand of the mummy, and has 
 come out again, after ages of imprisonment in 
 the lap of corruption, to grow green and strong 
 in a fertile fallow. It enters the palace, and 
 is welcome ; and the cottage, and is straight- 
 way recognized as an inalienable friend. It 
 has no personal life: its life is for the race. 
 In every one of these respects is the parable 
 of life revealed. You and I live in infinite re- 
 lations beyond our relation to the soil we thrive 
 in and the age we are said to live in. We sow 
 ourselves as corn is sowed, and others reap, 
 even as we before reaped what others sowed. 
 We come into a world made ready for us, as 
 the corn comes. The bed is warmed, the linen 
 is woven, the house is built, the road is made, 
 the seat is kept for us. It is thus that the 
 corn comes into the fallow which others have 
 plowed, and curls itself up in the moist earth 
 and sleeps content. But does it rest there in- 
 active 1 Does it end there ! No ; it repays the 
 toil and trust of man, and leaps up presently 
 and cries, " I have had enough of sleep ; " and 
 then the spring calls it, and the winds whisper 
 to it, and the lark pipes to it, and a million hun- 
 gry mouths cry, " We want you sorely ; " and 
 
58 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 then it thrusts its little green blade through 
 the soil, and cries, " I am here, and will repay- 
 in golden grain over a hundredfold all the care 
 and patience you have lavished on me." And 
 so it is with us, and it is ours to make the same 
 response. We were expected, and we came. 
 We fell into the place others had prepared for 
 us. We have appropriated to ourselves the 
 discoveries of science, the wealth of truth, the 
 moral riches of the ages. We sail on ships 
 which others have built, we read books which 
 others wrote, we travel on roads which others 
 have made. We are the heirs of all their labor, 
 the residuary legatees of all their love. What 
 then ? We must needs keep up the tradition 
 and fulfil the obligation. We must go on toil- 
 ing for others as others have toiled for us ; we 
 must even be ready to die for others as men 
 once died for us. We must push onward into 
 the wastes of human society, and sow them 
 with noble deeds, that that which others left 
 undone because their feet were weary and life 
 was short it may be ours to perfect and accom- 
 plish. He who does not do this is a traitor to 
 his race, a foul mildewed ear of corn, a thing 
 which earth will not nourish and the very 
 cattle will reject, a thing to be trodden under 
 foot of men, as unfit for food or honor ; and he 
 who does this shall come to his grave as a shock 
 
THE PABABLE OF HARVEST. 59 
 
 of corn, having served his generation by the 
 will of Grod. 
 
 4. The harvest is, again, the parable of 
 death. What is death ? We know it only as 
 decay, corruption, decomposition. We know 
 that the earth is full of it, that it is one vast 
 graveyard, walled in alone by the blue walls 
 of heaven. We see birds and fruits and flow- 
 ers all gliding down to its abyss ; and we too 
 at last totter down its dark stairs into nothing- 
 ness. We can safely hide ourselves from mal- 
 ice there ; in a few years our worst enemy will 
 not be able to find a trace of us ; we shall be 
 mere bitter dust mingled with other dust — 
 
 " Rolled round in earth's diurnal course, 
 With, rocks and stones and trees." 
 
 But we know another thing — that decomposi- 
 tion is recomposition. Nothing perishes, be- 
 cause there is no waste in nature. She sweeps 
 up every chard and fragment and uses them 
 again, that nothing be lost. And therein is 
 the parable of the corn : " Thou fool, it is not 
 quickened, except it die." It lives to die; it 
 dies to live. It dies to self: for if it could 
 speak might it not protest against the sickle 
 that severs its slender stalk, and the millstone 
 that grinds it, and the dark earth that shuts it 
 down in so stifling an embrace ? Might it not 
 
60 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 cry aloud, to drink the blithe air and wave in 
 the sweet breeze and listen to the lark's carol 
 a little longer ! But at the bidding of a higher 
 wisdom it goes meekly down to its appointed 
 place, and lo ! the months pass and it lives 
 again. It is mnltiplied, it is carried afar, it 
 relives in a hundred fields, and men bless it, 
 and bind its golden tassels on their chariots, 
 and pile its yellow stalks on the altars of the 
 church when they praise God in his holy tem- 
 ple. Even so death is the lifting up of the 
 shock of corn into fuller usefulness and life. 
 Going to the grave is ascension, not descen- 
 sion; it is transfiguration, not annihilation. 
 The man has reached a full age — it may be 
 even in youth as we reckon life — for he is ripe 
 and he is gathered, and his influence is con- 
 summated and broadened from that hour, so 
 that it is " forever and forever well with him." 
 Here, then, we have the revelation both of 
 the true purpose and the true triumph of life. 
 The purpose of life is use. That is the great 
 lesson of nature from first to last. Nothing 
 walks with aimless feet : everything which God 
 has made contributes directly to the great com- 
 monwealth of his creation. The flower purges 
 the air, the insect ministers to the flower ; the 
 very earthworm, insignificant and repulsive as 
 it appears, is the silent laborer who creates the 
 
THE PAEAELE OF HARVEST. 61 
 
 soil of continents ; and thus the same law of 
 use which lights the stars sets the lowest insect 
 and vegetable its appointed task in the perpet- 
 ual ministration of the universe. Nature is 
 simply a vast hive, in which the pulse of labor 
 is never stilled and the hum of toil never 
 ceases. What then are you doing? What 
 are you doing as a Christian ! Is any one the 
 poorer or the happier for your presence in the 
 world ! Do you minister to others or are you 
 ministered unto I The Lord Jesus in the same 
 night that he was betrayed, in that hour when 
 the shadow of his supreme sacrifice rested on 
 him, said, " It is more blessed to give than to 
 receive." Have you realized that in that hour 
 Christ announced the supreme law of Chris- 
 tianity itself I Have you realized that it is 
 not what you think or wish or feel, not the 
 delight you have in devout and holy worship, 
 or even the spiritual unction you may feel in 
 a service like this, that is the test of your re- 
 ligion, but what you do — the degree of use you 
 are to others in the great commonwealth of 
 man ? And the difference between the service 
 of nature and of man lies in this : that while 
 the plant or insect cannot choose or shirk its 
 service, you can. You can isolate yourself 
 from the noble toils of love; you can refuse 
 to stretch out a helping hand to the poor ; you 
 
62 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 can turn aside from the great social and politi- 
 cal questions of your time ; you can sleep while 
 others labor, and enjoy while others suffer, and 
 sit in the feast of folly while others are broken 
 on the pillory of sorrow. "If Christianity 
 were preached, taught, and understood in the 
 spirit of its Founder," a great Frenchman has 
 said, " there are many things in our social or- 
 ganization which would not last a single day," 
 and it is a true and faithful saying. For Chris- 
 tianity is not the rapture of worship, but the 
 healing of social wrongs, and if we cannot 
 Christianize our socialism we can at least so- 
 cialize our Christianity. That is the Chris- 
 tianity of Christ — labor, use, service — the re- 
 deeming of men at the price of sacrifice, the 
 redemption of society by the power of love ; 
 and he who fulfils these purposes is doing the 
 will of God, and shall abide forever. 
 
 And the true triumph of life is revealed 
 here also. It is to be sacrificed. To be used 
 is often to be sacrificed, even as the corn must 
 be plucked and ground before it can become 
 bread. But the sacrifice is the consummation 
 of its life : it is its true triumph. We com- 
 monly think with some commiseration of the 
 martyrs, or at least we think rather of their 
 physical deprivations than their moral great- 
 ness; but if we measured things rightly we 
 
THE PARABLE OF HARVEST. 63 
 
 should understand that the man whose life is 
 flung away for a cause or a truth has gained 
 the very highest development of which life is 
 capable, and is the noblest of victors. For 
 when all this life is over for us all, will there 
 be any true glory left for any of us, unless 
 it be the glory of having been used of Grod, 
 of having been of some true service to others ? 
 Do you remember what the old prophet said, 
 "The land mourns because the corn is wasted" ? 
 And that is the great mourning and lamenta- 
 tion which fills our land to-day — wasted pow- 
 ers of thought, of feeling, of affection ; wasted 
 enthusiasms and opportunities ; lives with the 
 possibilities of greatness in them shrunk into 
 shallow, trivial, worthless things ; corn that 
 might have gladdened earth with its harvest 
 left to sterility or rottenness, or distilled to 
 evil uses in the fierce alembic of the prince of 
 this world. Let not your lives be the exposi- 
 tions of such a parable as this. Let them 
 rather be the expositions of that higher, no- 
 bler parable of the corn which passes through 
 all its stages of development to find a larger 
 use with each change, and in all to be a source 
 of gladness because a source of ceaseless good 
 and service to the world. 
 
THE CHAIN OF BLESSINa. 
 
 BY J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D. 
 
 " I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and 
 they shall hear the earth ; and the earth shall hear the corn, 
 and the wine, and the oilj and they shall hear Jezreel." — 
 Hosea ii. 21, 22. 
 
 The language of the text is poetical and 
 highly figurative, but quite easy of compre- 
 hension. The word Jezreel means " seed of 
 God." It is the name used by this prophet to 
 designate the people of Grod. We have here, 
 then, as it were, a picture of the whole process 
 by which God answers his people when they 
 pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." 
 There are, first, the people looking to the 
 corn, and the wine, and the oil, i.e., the pro- 
 ductions of the year, and pleading for their 
 share ; and the corn, and the wine, and the oil 
 hear, i.e., grant them what they need. Again, 
 the corn, and the wine, and the oil are repre- 
 sented as looking to the earth to produce 
 them; earth hears and grants the request. 
 
 64 
 
THE CHAIN OF BLESSING. 65 
 
 Earth in lier turn looks up to heaven for the 
 sunshine and the rain which she needs ; heaven 
 hears and grants the blessing. Is this all? 
 Does this terminate the process? No; we 
 must rise a step farther before we reach the 
 summit. There is One who sits above the 
 heavens, to whom in their turn the heavens 
 must address their prayer, a prayer which 
 finds its answer, too, like all the rest : " I will 
 hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, 
 and they shall hear the earth ; and the earth 
 shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil ; 
 and they shall hear Jezreel." 
 
 The passage is not only beautiful but sug- 
 gestive. Its range is very wide. It leads us 
 all along the chain of effect and cause from 
 man through nature up to God. Beginning at 
 the lower extremity we find ourselves first in 
 the wide and busy domain of political econ- 
 omy, with its two branches of production and 
 distribution. " Earth shall hear the corn, and 
 the wine, and the oil " (production) ; " they 
 shall hear Jezreel" (distribution). Stepping 
 upward we reach the sphere of natural science, 
 and the highest raises us to the lofty regions 
 of theology. 
 
 In endeavoring to open up the passage a 
 little, let us follow the chain in the other di- 
 rection, beginning with the highest link, so to 
 
66 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 speak, thoiigli we may find as we proceed that 
 the theology of the passage is not by any 
 means confined to the highest hnk, but ex- 
 tends down through all the chain. 
 
 Pursuing this order, the first truth we are 
 taught is that however many links may seem 
 to intervene in nature's chain, if followed up, 
 it always leads to God at last. The bounteous 
 harvest which lately waved in rich luxuriance 
 in our plains and valleys, and now fills our 
 granaries, is the gift of God. The sower 
 sowed the seed; but whence came the seed! 
 Do you tell me it came by some process of 
 evolution ! That is no answer to the question 
 whence it came. It only provokes another 
 question, leading us to ask not only whence 
 came the thing evolved ? but whence came the 
 process of evolution 1 Who started it ! Who 
 superintended it? 
 
 Then, leaving the seed, whence came that 
 power which made it spring and grow and 
 multiply a hundredfold ? The rains of heaven 
 watered it ; but " hath the rain a father 1 and 
 who hath begotten the drops of dew ? " " Are 
 there any among the vanities of the Gentiles 
 that can cause rain ! or can the heavens give 
 showers ? Art not thou he, O Lord our God ? 
 therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou 
 hast made all these things," We may carry 
 
THE CHAIN OF BLESSING. 67 
 
 back the chain of second causes as far as we 
 may, we shall always find the farthest link 
 fastened to the throne of the Omnipotent. 
 Such is the great truth conveyed in the lovely 
 imagery of the text : '^I will hear the heavens, 
 and they shall hear the earth ; and the earth 
 shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil ; 
 and they shall hear Jezreel." 
 
 But another important truth is suggested. 
 There is first the promise given in its plain, 
 prosaic, literal form : " I will hear, saith the 
 Lord ;" and then the poetic unfolding in detail. 
 The short statement covers all the ground of 
 the longer one. When the heavens and the 
 earth and the products of the earth are repre- 
 sented as hearing the requests addressed to 
 them, it is of course only a poetic figure, of 
 which the literal truth is conveyed in the gen- 
 eral promise, " I will hear, saith the Lord." It 
 is God that hears, not only at the extremity 
 of the chain, but through it all, between each 
 separate link, however long it be. Thus it is 
 that we carry our theology all the way. The 
 second lesson, then, is, that not only is God 
 the Great First Cause, but he is in all inter- 
 mediate causes too. We speak of " laws," laws 
 of nature : the law of gravitation, for example, 
 according to which rain falls from heaven upon 
 the expectant earth ; the law of production, in 
 
68 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 accordance with which the earth brings forth 
 her fruits ; the law of distribution, in accor- 
 dance with which these productions reach those 
 who are in want of them. But who made the 
 laws! And if the attempt is made to evade 
 the force of the question by saying that the 
 laws were enacted long ago, a second question 
 comes : Who enforces the laws I There must 
 be power to do this; where is it! The hea- 
 vens have no power ; earth has no power ; rain 
 has no power. Where is the power then! 
 " Grod hath spoken once ; twice have I heard 
 this; that power belongeth unto God." As, 
 therefore, we follow down the chain, let us not 
 forget that in all these lower links as well as 
 in the highest we see the power of God. 
 
 "The heavens shall hear the earth.'' 
 What wondrous power in these silent plead- 
 ings of Mother Earth ; or rather what wondrous 
 power in Him who hears them ! What vast 
 machinery he sets in motion to grant the 
 prayer of her petition ; yet how simple in its 
 vastness ! The sun's rays fall upon the earth, 
 and the light and heat they bring are food to 
 the hungry soil. They fall upon the sea ; and 
 from it rises a watery vapor, which, borne aloft 
 and borne along, reaches its appointed place, 
 and, distilling into raindrops, supplies drink to 
 the thirsty ground. Thus it is that the hea- 
 
THE CHAIN OF BLESSING. 69 
 
 vens, or rather He who sitteth on the heavens, 
 hears the earth when she cries to Him. 
 
 " The earth shall hear the corn, and the 
 wine, and the oil." We might here again 
 follow a line of thought somewhat like the 
 preceding. We might speak, for example, of 
 the strange history of the seed : buried, decay- 
 ing, dying, reviving, springing, growing, flow- 
 ering, bearing, " in some thirty, in some sixty, 
 and in some an hundred fold." This would 
 still keep us in the domain of natural science. 
 But it is time now to look in another direction. 
 
 Has it never struck you as a remarkable 
 thing that there should be such a regular pro- 
 portion between what is produced and what is 
 needed for consumption in a given year ? This 
 might not excite our wonder if there were some 
 world-wide regulation setting apart so many of 
 the human family for directly productive labor. 
 But when we think that the whole thing is left 
 to individual choice, is it not evident that there 
 must be some power at work to preserve the 
 necessary equilibrium ? There is, indeed, the 
 law of demand and supply to regulate this. 
 When the number of persons engaged in any 
 particular business is too small, profits in that 
 business rise, and thus others are attracted to 
 it, until demand and supply are equalized, and 
 profits reach the ordinary level. But, besides 
 
70 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 that this law is not sufficient of itself to keep 
 the equilibrium as constant as it is, we must 
 remember that this law is just like other laws. 
 It implies a lawgiver. It implies a power above 
 ourselves. The law of demand and supply is 
 not found, any more than is the law of gravita- 
 tion, in any earthly statute-book. It is a law 
 of Grod. And we have him to thank that we 
 do not find ourselves, some of these winters, 
 in our fine houses, with our rich furniture 
 about us, libraries well supplied with books, 
 walls with pictures, and mantelpieces with or- 
 naments, and nothing to eat. There is such a 
 calamity as famine, and we have to thank God 
 that it has not come to our doors. After all, 
 however, any famine we ever read of or wit- 
 ness is only partial, and can be relieved by the 
 transference of food from those places where 
 it is in abundance. But what if there were a 
 universal famine some year ? 
 
 Let us glance now at the last link: 
 "The corn, the wine, and the oil shall 
 hear Jezreel." We have here a portion of 
 the human family looking for their share of 
 the year's products and getting it. A simple 
 enough process surely ; yet not so simple as it 
 seems. Food is produced where population is 
 scanty ; it is wanted mainly where population 
 is dense. Archbishop Whately, in his lectures 
 
THE CHAIN OF BLESSING. 71 
 
 on political economy, in showing what an ex- 
 traordinary thing it is that a city like London 
 should be so regularly and proportionately 
 supplied even with the most perishable articles 
 of consumption, acutely remarks that " man's 
 foresight often gets the credit for what is due 
 to Grod's wisdom." And if we think of it, we 
 shall see that all foresight of man would ut- 
 terly fail for a work so stupendous as this. 
 Suppose that God's overruling providence in 
 this matter were removed for a time, and it 
 became necessary for the municipal authori- 
 ties, or for some board appointed for the pur- 
 pose, to see that a sufficient number of men 
 were employed to bring a sufficient supply of 
 food into the metropolis, how should we fare ? 
 What board or council would undertake to 
 cater for a million 1 
 
 It is difficult to tell where the science of po- 
 litical economy now stands ; many of the ac- 
 cepted principles of twenty years ago are called 
 in question in these days of the sifting of all 
 things ; but it is our belief that in the end it 
 will be found that the best economy of man is 
 to follow the economy of Grod. It is God who 
 manages the great household of the human 
 family. It is he who hears not only the hea- 
 vens when they call, but Jezreel and New York 
 when they caU. It is God who makes the sun 
 
72 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 to shine and the rain to fall ; it is he who makes 
 the earth to fructify and bear ; it is he who se- 
 cures a sufficient production of the necessaries 
 of life year by year ; and it is he who by the 
 operation of the laws which regulate social life 
 brings what we want to our very doors. All 
 these things are done by intermediate agencies 
 — ^by the powers of nature or the energy of 
 man, or both ; but the entire process is super- 
 intended and controlled by the Grod of nature 
 and of providence, who is indeed " God over 
 all, blessed forever " — to whom, therefore, it is 
 meet that we give thanks and praise for the 
 goodness with which he has crowned another 
 year. 
 
 But besides the very obvious fact that agri- 
 cultural prosperity is the foundation of all 
 material welfare, and that to a very large ex- 
 tent our manufacturers derive their raw ma- 
 terial from the yearly products of the soil, it 
 is important to remember that all we have 
 said is just as applicable to manufactures as to 
 agriculture. Many have the idea that the 
 farmer is more deiDcndent on the divine power 
 than the artisan or the manufacturer. It is a 
 great mistake. The chain along which we de- 
 rive our manufactured goods from the Giver 
 of all good may be longer than the other ; but 
 it is just as true, not only that God is at the 
 
THE CHAIN OF BLESSING. 73 
 
 upper end of it, but in each intermediate link. 
 This is an obvious enough thought, and yet it 
 is overlooked by many who suppose that in 
 the products of the field we see the results of 
 the divine power, whereas in the products of 
 the loom we see what man can do. Such over- 
 look the fact that no machine can produce 
 power ; it can only take some natural agent 
 which is ready furnished to the mechanic, as 
 the sunshine and the rain are to the farmer, 
 and bring it to bear at the point and in the 
 way necessary to secure the end. In this con- 
 nection it is interesting to know, according to 
 the recent teaching of science, that all the force 
 which is used in all our factories is ultimately 
 traceable to the sun. Are they driven by 
 water-power ! It is the sun which has raised 
 the water from the level of the ocean and given 
 it a head. Are they driven by steam-power ? 
 It was the sun which millions of years ago 
 poured its rays on the luxurious vegetation of 
 the Carboniferous era, and filled it full of a 
 latent force which, after the leaves and stems 
 and roots containing it had been pressed and 
 hardened and blackened underground, should 
 be available to those who in future ages should 
 dig it up as coal, and use it to heat their houses 
 and drive their engines. It is fully allowed 
 now by scientific men that force is as inde- 
 
74 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 structible as matter, that man can neither in- 
 crease nor diminish it; and after all is not this 
 just a nineteenth-century way of putting the 
 same old truth which God taught the psalmist 
 three thousand years ago : " Grod hath spoken 
 once; twice have I heard this; that power 
 belongeth unto Grod"? In our manufactures 
 as in agriculture, the raw material on the one 
 hand and the power to work it up on the other, 
 and all these qualities of the different metals 
 and other substances which are made use of in 
 the process — all these are of God, and of him 
 only. 
 
 There has been considerable stagnation in 
 many branches of our manufacturing and com- 
 mercial industries. But have we really wanted 
 for anything ? Have our comforts been much 
 abridged? Have we not all, or almost all, of 
 us nearly everything that we could reasonably 
 desire? Surely, then, we have no reason to 
 complain of hard times, or to refrain from giv- 
 ing unto God our heartiest thanks and praise 
 on this Thanksgiving Day. There has been, 
 indeed, and will be, no doubt, this winter, much 
 suffering among the poor. Those who suffer, 
 however, belong to one or other of two classes : 
 first, that large class whose privations are di- 
 rectly traceable to improvidence or intemper- 
 ance, or both; and second, a much smaller 
 
THE CHAIN OF BLESSING. 75 
 
 class of deserving poor, for whom the Father 
 of all cares as tenderly as he does for the rich, 
 and even more tenderly, and who will one day 
 find that their earthly poverty has been a bless- 
 ing in disguise, first to themselves, and then 
 to those who had the privilege of helping them 
 in their time of need. We must indeed pro- 
 vide for the undeserving as well as for the de- 
 serving poor, for the greatest sin should never 
 put a man or a woman beyond the reach of 
 mercy and charity; but we must of course 
 draw a very sharp line of distinction, using 
 caution, strictness, even sternness when neces- 
 sary, with the former, but dealing in all kind- 
 ness and liberality with the latter. Our char- 
 itable societies are doing noble work, for the 
 most part wisely and well. Still they cannot 
 do the whole. We ought all to do our share, 
 not certainly by giving thoughtlessly to im- 
 portunate beggars, but by seeking out for our- 
 selves some needy ones whom we can help. 
 Let us seek out as the objects of our special 
 charity those who are so sensitive and so in- 
 dependent that they will suffer want rather 
 than let their wants be known. This will be 
 far better evidence of our gratitude than any 
 amount of devotion on a Thanksgiving Day. 
 
 We had intended to have spoken of many 
 other things ; but it is vain to try to cover the 
 
76 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 ground of God's mercies — '^ If we sliould count 
 them, tliey are m.ore in number than the sand." 
 Let us all try to think of as many as we can : 
 our personal mercies, our family mercies, our 
 social mercies, our national mercies ; the prev- 
 alence of peace, the absence of pestilence, the 
 stability of our institutions, the restraint of 
 evil, the furtherance of good — these and such 
 as these will afford food for meditation and 
 fuel for the fires of gratitude and love which 
 surely ought to burn in every heart. 
 
"THE DEW UNTO ISRAEL.'^ 
 
 BY THE REV. J. ROBINSON GREGORY. 
 " I will be as the dew unto Israel." — Hosea xiv. 5. 
 
 The prophecies of Hosea cover so long a 
 period — some sixty years — that it is clear that 
 we possess only specimens of the addresses he 
 was accustomed to deliver. The last chapter 
 forms a sort of summary of his appeals and 
 exhortations. 
 
 The words, " I will be as the dew unto Israel," 
 follow immediately the healing of the backslid- 
 ing and the proclamation of God's free love. 
 In them and in the next four verses the over- 
 flowing love of God, his quenchless generosity, 
 find vent. The style is mainly metaphorical, 
 the comparisons being drawn from Nature as 
 she appears in Palestine. It is thus nearly 
 impossible for us who live on another conti- 
 nent, under very different physical conditions, 
 to appreciate their full force. The general 
 idea, however, we can catch. 
 
 77 
 
78 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 "I will be as the clew unto Israel." 
 
 With us the dew is little noticed. We look to 
 the clouds to supply all that grows upon the 
 earth with sufficient moisture. Our poets sing 
 of it — how it glistens in the sunlight; how, 
 gemlike, it ornaments every flower, every 
 grass-blade, in the early morning. Our men 
 of science ponder it, and are only partially 
 satisfied as to its cause. But we do not rate 
 highly its substantial benefit. In Judea great 
 heat and little rain make the dew as important 
 as it is beautiful. But for it the fields of Israel 
 would speedily become a mass of dry, withered 
 herbage. 
 
 Three circumstances render the dew a pecu- 
 liarly appropriate symbol of God's sustaining 
 care for his people, his constant grace. First, 
 the dew falls regularly, in summer as in winter, 
 in autumn as in spring. Showers descend at 
 indefinite intervals — the dew is a continual 
 daily blessing. Second, it comes quietly, not 
 like the rushing thunder-storm nor in the 
 broad sunshine, but in the night, when no one 
 perceives its advent. Thirdly, there is mys- 
 tery connected with it — at any rate, in popular 
 thought. Thus Israel is promised daily bene- 
 diction, refreshment shed forth without in- 
 termission and without disturbance. Their 
 peaceful happiness shaU be unalloyed by fe- 
 
"the dew unto iseael." 79 
 
 verish anxiety for fresh supplies. While they 
 rest Grod shall work for them. He shall be to 
 them a ceaseless, soft, still influence for good. 
 Thus, too, does he communicate grace to his 
 believing children. He is as the dew unto his 
 spiritual Israel. How gently, how continu- 
 ously, he blesses us ! Often we feel sweet 
 peace when we are half unconscious of its 
 source. Our soul's life would languish, would 
 fail suddenly, were it not for the secret sup- 
 port vouchsafed to us by God. 
 
 Thus watered from on high, Israel 
 "shall grow (or blossom) as the lily." 
 We may not be able to decide to what partic- 
 ular species of " lily " the prophet refers, but 
 there can be no doubt that he has in his 
 thought the beauty of the flower, the rapidity 
 of its growth, and its amazing productiveness. 
 With the lily is associated also the idea of 
 purity. The Christian does not grow accord- 
 ing to one rigid rule, is not fashioned after 
 one invariable pattern. There are freedom 
 and spontaneity about his development. The 
 results of the divine blessing appear quickly. 
 The tall lily, elegant in shape, gorgeous in 
 coloring, prolific in growth, sending forth 
 leaves and flowers freely, forms a choice em- 
 blem of Christian beauty and fertility. 
 
 But the lily is extremely fragile, and it is 
 
80 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 short-lived. It can last but a single season ; it 
 may endure for a much shorter period. A 
 child's hand may pinch a flower and then throw 
 it away to wither. The hoof of passing cattle 
 may trample it into the mire. Another com- 
 parison must exhibit Israel's strength and 
 stability. He shall ^'cast forth his roots as 
 Lebanon," i.e., as the cedar of Lebanon. What 
 type drawn from the vegetable world can bet- 
 ter set forth firmness than the cedar of Leba- 
 non ! It retains its vigor for centuries. Pos- 
 sibly there are cedars still living which heard 
 the ax of Solomon's workmen as they cut down 
 trees for the cedar- work of the temple. Win- 
 ter storms have served only to tighten the 
 hold of the roots, winter snows to give a more 
 graceful curve to the branches. The roots 
 clasp themselves around the rock, and there- 
 fore the tree stands unshaken. So the Chris- 
 tian is strong in the Lord and in the power of 
 his might. Eested in the Eock of Ages, he 
 bids defiance to the world, the flesh, and the 
 devil. Tribulation and temptation increase 
 his strength and hasten his growth. 
 
 " His branches shall spread." The flour- 
 ishing tree sends out new suckers continually, 
 which take root and themselves grow into 
 trees, to repeat the process again and again. 
 Israel multiplies as well as grows. The one 
 
"the dew unto ISRAEL." 81 
 
 tree becomes many trees. The application 
 attaches rather to the church than to the indi- 
 vidual Christian, though the figure was used 
 generally of strength and progress. Still, 
 through his efforts to lead others to Christ, 
 the Christian may be said to multiply himseK. 
 
 " His beauty shall be as the olive-tree." 
 To an Oriental eye the olive-tree is actually 
 beautiful. But we fairly may employ the olive 
 as a type of usefulness. The Christian pos- 
 sesses the beauty of holiness, but it is not a 
 mere personal adornment and delight. It leads 
 to earnest service on behalf of the bodies and 
 souls of men. The very character of the true 
 Christian renders him useful. Whether un- 
 obtrusively in the home or in more public 
 philanthropy, he is ever ready to render to all 
 men kindly service and help. 
 
 " And his smell as Liehanon." Travelers 
 tell us that the fragrance of Lebanon extends 
 to a considerable distance from its mountains 
 and valleys, owing partly to its cedars, and 
 partly to various sweet-smelling plants which 
 are produced profusely. The " smell " results 
 from the emission of invisible particles which 
 impinge upon the olfactory nerves. The per- 
 fume is exhaled continuously and without 
 effort. The metaphor may illustrate the in- 
 fluence exerted by the Christian ceaselessly 
 
82 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 and often unconsciously. How often have 
 men been compelled to acknowledge the truth 
 and power of Christianity, have even been 
 brought to experience and embrace them, 
 through the quiet but potent influence of a 
 faithful Christian life ! 
 
 "They that dwell under his shadow 
 shall return." The figure represents Israel 
 as a wide-spreading, umbrageous tree. It is 
 not quite easy, however, to fix the precise 
 meaning of the prophet's words. If we trans- 
 late, or rather paraphrase, " They shall return 
 and dwell under his shadow," we have a meta- 
 phor expressing the protection of the church 
 over those who do not actually belong to her. 
 Many who are not real Christians are glad to 
 live in Christian countries, and to be governed 
 by Christian laws. Or we may render, " They 
 that dwell under his shadow shall grow wise," 
 and the words will allude to the teaching and 
 instructing power of the church and of the 
 private Christian. 
 
 " They shall revive as the corn." Even 
 prosperous Israel may have his seasons of de- 
 pression and apparent feebleness. The green 
 stalk has forced itself through the ground, and 
 encounters the fierce heat of the Eastern sun. 
 Soon it lies seemingly lifeless upon the parched 
 earth, stricken by the sun. But the night mists 
 
"the dew unto iskael." 83 
 
 and the morning dew enwrap it, so that it 
 drinks in the blessed moisture, and once more 
 it erects its head and recovers its greenness. 
 Often is the struggling blade compelled to lie 
 prostrate, but as often it revives, until it can 
 endure the hot sunshine, and in its season 
 brings forth thirty, sixty, an hundred fold. 
 Sometimes a kind of wireworm will gnaw the 
 root, and worse damage ensues than is wrought 
 by the heat. But even then the dew enables 
 the corn to triumph over its foe, to reach per- 
 fection in spite of it. Thus tribulation or per- 
 secution, or the assaults of insidious sin, may 
 render the Christian feeble, may cause him to 
 fail. But the dew of divine grace descends 
 upon him. He who restoreth the soul vouch- 
 safes his Holy Spirit to him, and again he rises 
 strong in humility and trust. Few truths are 
 more consolatory to the earnest follower of 
 Christ, cognizant of his own weakness and of 
 his danger through the onsets and devices of 
 the evil one, than that he can be lifted up from 
 his fall, supported under care and trouble 
 and sorrow, cleansed from and strengthened 
 against his sin. 
 
 " And grow (or blossom) as the vine." 
 Perhaps Hosea's thought was concerned main- 
 ly with the fertility of the vine and the beauty 
 and richness of its clusters. We may, how- 
 
84 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 ever, legitimately ascribe another signification 
 to the figure. All the preceding metaphors 
 imply power to stand alone, without extrane- 
 ous support. The stately cedar, the delicate 
 lily, the thin corn-stalk, rear themselves erect. 
 But the vine is not intended to stand upright 
 by its own power. It must lean on some- 
 thing else. It must be fastened to the wall, 
 or trained over poles or trellis-work. And the 
 Christian must ever rely on a strength be- 
 yond his own. He leans upon the Beloved. 
 Some species of dwarf vines can fiourish with- 
 out props. Every attempt of the believer to 
 stand alone, every moment's forgetfulness of 
 his dependence, tends to dwarf his spiritual 
 stature and to diminish his fruitfulness. Let 
 us remember gladly, gratefully, constantly, 
 that we may and must rest on as well as in 
 God. 
 
 " The scent thereof shall be as the wine 
 of Liehanon." For " scent " the margin gives 
 " memorial," an alternative rendering that sug- 
 gests the interpretation. Travelers speak en- 
 thusiastically of its bouquet, of the length of 
 time during which the pleasant taste remains 
 on the palate after the other effects have passed 
 away. This is its " scent," which abides when 
 the wine itself is no more. 
 
 Can a more appropriate illustration be con- 
 
"the dew unto ISRAEL." 85 
 
 ceived of the abiding influence of a Christian's 
 life, example, work, after he has left this 
 world I His memory is an inspiration. His 
 good deeds live after him. The church pos- 
 sesses enormous treasure in the biographies 
 of the saints. But no good man's influence 
 dies with himself : it extends at least to the 
 third or fourth generation. Their memorial is 
 as the wine of Lebanon. 
 
 Thus Israel, the Christian church, the indi- 
 vidual believer, is blessed with the freedom 
 and beauty of the lily; the strength, expan- 
 sion, and self-propagation of the cedar; the 
 usefulness of the olive ; the recuperative power 
 of the corn ; the fertility and tender clinging- 
 ness of the vine ; the abiding memory of the 
 wine of Lebanon. In him the most opposite 
 and mutually exclusive properties inhere and 
 harmonize. Nature is strained to do him 
 homage and to express his excellences. 
 
 The ninth verse presents some difiiculties of 
 interpretation, even for purely practical pur- 
 poses. We may accept the question, " What 
 have I to do with idols'?" as the speech of 
 Ephraim, and as expressing the utmost abhor- 
 rence of idolatry, and his wonder that he could 
 ever have preferred the cult of the idol to the 
 service of Jehovah. " I have heard him, and 
 will regard him," is certainly Jehovah's reply. 
 
86 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 (Compare Jer. viii. 6 ; Ps. xxxii. 8, R. V.) But 
 who is it that says, " I am like a green fir- 
 tree " 1 It is quite possible to understand it of 
 Ephraim. In that case Ephraim declares his 
 astonishment that he, who had been so fickle 
 and faithless, should be preserved continually 
 in vigorous health. Or we may ascribe the 
 words to Jehovah, who, after comparing his 
 people to trees and plants, condescends to em- 
 ploy similar imagery concerning himself. In- 
 dubitably the words, " From me is thy fruit 
 found," proceed from God. If the previous 
 clause belongs to Ephraim, the words remind 
 him that he owes his rejuvenescence and pro- 
 ductiveness solely to the Lord. The objection 
 that the fir-tree does not bear any fruit is by 
 no means fatal. The inference would be that 
 no symbol taken from the vegetable world 
 could exhibit the divine perfection; that the 
 contradiction was designed to show how great- 
 ly the Almighty transcends any comparison 
 that may be used regarding him. 
 
 " From me is thy fruit found." One is re- 
 minded of our Lord's parable of the vine and 
 its branches (John xv. 4, 5). Prosper and 
 flourish as the Christian may, let him ever 
 keep in mind that his goodness, beauty, and 
 happiness are all derived from (rod, and that 
 by continual communication. " All my foun- 
 
UNTO ISRAEL." 87 
 
 tains are in thee." God is the continuous 
 source of all our perfection and joy. From 
 him come mercies " new every morning." Here 
 is the remedy for the weariness and monotony 
 of life — the freshness of each successive gift of 
 GocL 
 
THE PLOWMAN TAUGHT OF GOD. 
 
 BY THE REV. FRANCIS STANDFAST. 
 
 " For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth 
 teach him." — Isa. xxviii. 26. 
 
 "For his God doth instruct him aright, and doth teach 
 him." — Revised Version. 
 
 Nature has many striking contrasts — the 
 oasis, with its feathery palm and sweet water 
 in the desert; the vineyard, with its purple 
 clusters and luxuriant verdure untouched, sur- 
 rounded by the fiery scoria and lava which the 
 mighty volcano has vomited ; the ships safely 
 anchored within the breakwater, while a trium- 
 phant sea hurls itself on the rocks, or engulfs 
 the ships beyond. Even so this chapter has 
 for us a glad surprise. The heaviest and dark- 
 est judgments have been denounced against 
 the Jews ; but in the midst of this we catch 
 gentler tones : " Give ear, and hear my voice ; 
 hearken, and hear my speech." This solemn 
 invocation is given that we may listen to a 
 pleasing parable or allegory. Under the fig- 
 
 88 
 
THE PLOWMAN TAUGHT OF GOD. 89 
 
 ure of the husbandman dealing with the soil, 
 we have portrayed God's method of dealing 
 with his people. 
 
 Some people prize things because they are 
 ancient, and would even justify their own sins 
 because of the original sin of Adam. Agricul- 
 ture is the most ancient of all pursuits, for 
 Adam was a gardener, Cain a farmer, Abel a 
 herdsman; and Cain did not go to live in a 
 city or attempt to build one until after he had 
 committed his great crime. It is not only the 
 most ancient, but also the most necessary, and 
 all other pursuits could be more readily spared 
 than this. The most careless observer who 
 walks through an agricultural show must be 
 forcibly struck with the great importance of 
 agriculture. How foolish and sinful it is for 
 those who possess wealth acquired by the toil 
 of others, and who are designated independent, 
 to despise or oppress those on whose humble 
 toil they are indeed most dependent ! What 
 would be the value of the broad acres if left 
 without culture? It is the toil of the peas- 
 ant which makes them productive, and which 
 wrings from the soil those ample revenues 
 that sustain the proprietor in luxurious ease. 
 Of what benefit would be those pieces of sil- 
 ver, gold, or paper which we call cash, without 
 indefatigable industry producing the necessa- 
 
90 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 ries and comfort which money brings 1 Would 
 coin satisfy the cravings of hunger ! No more 
 than molten gold could assuage thirst. The 
 painter must lay down his brush and palette, 
 the poet his pen, the philosopher suspend his 
 experiments, and the voice of the orator be 
 dumb, the jeweled crown become a worthless 
 bauble, the most stately palace become a re- 
 gion of desolation, but for the labor of the ag- 
 riculturist and fisherman. 
 
 Labor is the foundation on which the mighty 
 fabric of human society rests, and none but 
 the vain, proud, and foolish will overlook their 
 obligation to the toilers. Acknowledged reci- 
 procity of advantage should bind all classes to- 
 gether in one strong, common bond of mutual 
 support ; for if the man of leisure is dependent 
 on those sons of toil for the very necessity of 
 existence, it is equally certain that to such the 
 toilers are indebted for the social order which 
 preserves liberty and life, for the books which 
 inspire to intellectual elevation, and for the 
 sciences which indefinitely expand the com- 
 pass of our being. If the arch be indebted to 
 the foundation-stone for its very existence, it 
 could not retain its graceful sweep or strength 
 one moment without its keystone. 
 
 Let us contemplate the method of the divine 
 teaching. 
 
THE PLOWMAN TAUGHT OF GOD. 91 
 
 1. The plowman teaches us a lesson of 
 preparation. " Doth the plowman plow all 
 day to sow 1 doth he open and break the clods 
 of his ground!" Yes. Here is painstaking, 
 honorable toil. If an end be good, then it is 
 wise and honorable to strive to secure it. The 
 plowman aims at the harvest : the plowing is 
 a necessary preparation. God prepared much 
 for man before he introduced him into Eden. 
 God would not bring his favorite creature man 
 into a dreary, cheerless world, but into one 
 glowing with beauty, impressive in magnifi- 
 cence, overflowing with goodness. What a 
 home was Paradise ! nothing spared, nothing 
 overlooked, nothing grudged. No cradle for 
 an emperor's child was ever prepared with such 
 magnificence as the world has been for man. 
 Earth, God's cradle for the human race, is in- 
 deed curiously carved and decorated, flower- 
 strewn and gossamer-curtained, and man is 
 only working together with God when he 
 strives to do his part in making this earth 
 yield its wealth and increase in harmony with 
 the divine appointment. For this the plow- 
 man is ready to plow all day, and to open and 
 break the clods. 
 
 2. A lesson of activity. The plowman has 
 passed the time of deliberation ; he has decided, 
 and decision has led to action. The irresolute 
 
92 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 spend much time in deliberation — it may be 
 a lifetime — and do nothing. There is much 
 truth in Bacon's complaint, that "some men 
 object too much, consult too long, adventure 
 too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive 
 business home." This aphorism applies, alas ! 
 to too many alike in the world and the church. 
 But plowmen are by sheer necessity freed from 
 it ; they drive business home in a most prac- 
 tical manner; yet plowing is preparation — 
 there is no present recompense. The long 
 chilly winter, the shy retiring spring, the om- 
 nipotent summer, must spend their force with- 
 out abatement before the harvest is won. All 
 great service and usefulness must be prepared 
 for ; those are wisest who spend more time in 
 preparing for high office than in clamoring for 
 it. A few may never reach their right places. 
 It is more than possible that statues of a Phid- 
 ias or Praxiteles are buried in the tumuli of 
 Athens ; but men ought to be more than stat- 
 ues in the temple of Providence, and sooner or 
 later find their proper niches, contributing to 
 the grace, adornment, and finish of the world. 
 If you acquire all the fitness for high place, 
 and do not reach it, the world and society at 
 large will be the losers ; but you, it may be, 
 will only have lost much worry and care. But 
 if you get it without fitness, you, the one whose 
 
THE PLOWMAN TAUGHT OF GOD. 93 
 
 place you take, and the world, with all coming 
 generations, may be the losers. "High sta- 
 tions," says D'Alembert, " are like the top of 
 a pyramid, accessible only to an eagle or to a 
 creeping thing." I will not assume that you 
 are creeping things — some, alas ! have not per- 
 severance enough to achieve that high rank — 
 I will assume that you are eaglets. Be wary, 
 then, and do not try to soar to the loftiest 
 mountain crags, where the ice-king reigns, and 
 the thunder stores its magazine and forges 
 its bolts, before you have tried your wings 
 in lower regions. One of the strongest proofs 
 of a sound religion is to be thankful for any 
 heights which it is possible to scale, and to be 
 as thankful for the continuous valley in which 
 human duty is best discharged. Present hap- 
 piness, at least, depends more upon plowing in 
 the valley than dreaming on the top of the 
 mountain. Preparation should be earnest, 
 constant, exhaustive, painstaking, in propor- 
 tion to the good sought to be attained. There 
 is one occupation which is ever green, its leaf 
 never fades, of which we need never be weary, 
 which is good for all seasons, beautiful at all 
 times, a source of unwearying delight, which 
 comes nearest to the divine, and that is — do- 
 ing good. This is almost the only pleasure 
 which increases as life goes on; almost the 
 
94 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 only investment which is absolutely safe at all 
 times. While we may absolve young people 
 to a large extent from great philanthropic ac- 
 tivity, yet we do not absolve them from pre- 
 paring themselves for it as earnestly as plow- 
 man prepares the soil, or the student prepares 
 himself for his examination for his degree. 
 Man is the great spendthrift of the moral uni- 
 verse; he knows more about the saving of 
 money than the conservation of energy. As- 
 tronomers tell us of worlds fusing and passing 
 away in vapor. Man creates many such. It 
 may be that the majority outside the Christian 
 church " spend money for that which is not 
 bread, and labor for that which satisfieth not." 
 Ulysses could not discover a happier method 
 of making his foes believe in his insanity 
 than by plowing up the sand by the sea-shore. 
 How much quick-witted invention degenerates 
 to the same folly ! Often within the church, 
 where heavenly wisdom ought to shine, mat- 
 ters are not much improved. How many are 
 at ease in Zion ! How many shirk the plow- 
 ing altogether ! How many let noxious weeds 
 grow apace ! How many miss the time of 
 open-handed sowing, and yet expect to wake 
 up when the song of harvest-home fills the air, 
 and to gather their own golden sheaves ! The 
 world has never witnessed miracles of this 
 kind. 
 
THE PLOWMAN TAUGHT OF GOD. 95 
 
 There is still a sense in which the children 
 of the world are wiser than the children of light. 
 Many of these count years not wasted to ac- 
 quire proficiency in mere vanities and triviali- 
 ties over which angels well may weep. Dugald 
 Stewart tells of one who spent fifteen years of 
 his life in acquiring mathematical precision in 
 balancing a pole on his chin. A Chinese jug- 
 gler has to practise many hours a day from 
 early infancy in order to acquire that supple- 
 ness of joint, firmness of muscle, quickness 
 and precision of movement, which shall en- 
 able him to revolve four balls simultaneously 
 through their mimic orbits. " You charge me 
 fifty sequins," said a Venetian nobleman to a 
 sculptor, " for a bust that cost you only ten 
 days of labor." " You forget," replied the ar- 
 tist, " that I have been thirty years learning to 
 make that bust in ten days." The plowman, 
 sculptor, painter, even the juggler and mounte- 
 bank, reprove countless millions for the little 
 preparation they make to labor for that meat 
 which endureth unto everlasting life. 
 
 3. A lesson of prudence. " Grod giveth 
 him discretion." All toil that is honest is 
 honorable, but that is the most honorable 
 which employs the greatest variety of our 
 powers. The measure of physical power de- 
 fines not the degree of honor ; if so, any one of 
 
96 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 the insensate, unyielding, potent laws of na- 
 ture would surpass man's supremest work. 
 The lowliest of the laborers in the Carrara 
 quarries may put forth more strength in ex- 
 cavating the block of marble than Michael 
 Angelo in sculpturing his Moses, most ma- 
 jestic and impressive of all works of art. The 
 mere physical strength which cannot rival 
 brute force, the mechanical skill which the in- 
 stinctive precision of the ant or bee or beaver 
 can excel, cannot hope to rival the higher 
 faculties of reason and judgment. All labor, 
 up to a certain point, strengthens the powers 
 exercised ; development of the good is not, and 
 cannot be, anything but honorable ; therefore, 
 in proportion as the higher and nobler powers 
 are brought into exercise, there is high and 
 ennobling toil. Many call the toiler in the 
 field a clodhopper, as though he had no spark 
 of celestial reason, as if the toil were as purely 
 mechanical as the work of the steam-plow. 
 But this is insulting to the Lord of the vine- 
 yard, for his Grod doth instruct him to discre- 
 tion, and doth teach him. He has a modified 
 kind of inspiration. He uses his brains as 
 well as his hands, his common sense as well 
 as his eyes, his understanding as well as his 
 feet. Oh, how much of the service offered to 
 pomp, pride, vanity, and fashion lacks discre- 
 
THE PLOWMAN TAUGHT OF GOD. 97 
 
 tion! Does not all the faithful service ren- 
 dered to Satan by his devotees lack all traces 
 of discretion 1 Are not sin and folly synony- 
 mous? Is not that man who in his worldly 
 greed and prudence "pulled down his barns 
 and built greater " called in Holy Writ a "fool " ? 
 The world often makes display without taste, 
 ostentation without reason, great plans with- 
 out wisdom. It glories more in appearance 
 than in reality ; it often goes into life's battle- 
 field without preparation, early in the day 
 falls into an ambush, ere noon casts vilely 
 aside its shield, and ere evening is a dishonor- 
 able captive and slave. Yet God giveth wis- 
 dom liberally, and upbraideth not him that 
 asketh for it. Bonaparte once remarked of 
 one of his marshals that " he is as brave as 
 his sword, but he wants judgment and re- 
 sources, and is not to be trusted with a great 
 command." Many things come by experience 
 — even the sportsman's dog can be taught to si- 
 lently crouch in the heather, and the cat can 
 be broken of its pilfering — but experience can- 
 not give judgment, though it may develop it. 
 It is like taste, genius — a direct gift of God. 
 You cannot find it in the diamond-bed or in 
 the secret stores of the everlasting hills ; not 
 in the majestic river, the umbrageous woods ; 
 not in any of the halls or corridors or state- 
 
98 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 rooms of nature's palace. No principle of de- 
 velopment can account for this kingly faculty 
 — so important is it deemed that a revealed 
 will stoops to illumine it. It gives Grod's Word 
 a throne to sit on ; it makes faith become its 
 handmaid to tell it of the substance of things 
 not seen. 
 
 This faculty of discretion men are called 
 upon to exercise daily. The plowman plows 
 to sow ; he wastes not his labor ; he breaks the 
 sod that there may be a bed for the seed and a 
 storehouse for the sun's warmth and reservoir 
 for genial shower and fertilizing dew. Pru- 
 dence or discretion is a good commander-in- 
 chief : it has won battles over the stubborn- 
 ness of the soil, the inclemency of the climate, 
 the stormy elements. With prudence as a 
 guide we need scarcely any other in ordinary 
 matters. If we thoughtfully and prayerfully 
 take care of our own actions, God will take 
 care of the results. All the loving forces of 
 nature, with the mighty armies which they 
 can bring into the field, will rally at our side, 
 and the ^' Captain of that host is God." Pru- 
 dence considers the end, whether it be worthy ; 
 the means, whether they are righteous; the 
 manner, whether it is comely. We have no 
 right to tempt providence in any part of its 
 wide domains. Try it in the honest field by 
 
THE PLOWMAN TAUGHT OF GOD. 99 
 
 indolence or imprudence or lack of foresight, 
 and ruin is certain. Try it in ordinary secu- 
 lar matters, and bankruptcy or disappointment 
 is the lot of our inheritance. Try it in the 
 realms of the soul by neglecting spiritual cul- 
 ture, and eternal winter petrifies. He who 
 walks in dangerous ways will perish in them, 
 even as Josiah — favorite of God though he 
 was — was wounded unto death because he 
 pressed farther against his enemies than the 
 words of Grod permitted. It has been said that 
 "the virtue most necessary to perfection is 
 prudence ; for the most virtuous actions of 
 men, unless governed and described by pru- 
 dence, are neither pleasing to God nor service- 
 able to others nor profitable to ourselves." 
 This prudence, when sanctified, becomes that 
 religion which makes us wise unto salvation. 
 
 4. A lesson of order. The discreet hus- 
 bandman plows in the proper season in order 
 that the Lord's plow, the frost, may pulverize 
 the soil a thousand times finer than any human 
 implement. He considers the time ^to plow. 
 That grain which takes the longer to germi- 
 nate, develop, and mature shall have the longer 
 season, like architect or builder demanding 
 time according to the magnitude of the house, 
 palace, or temple to be reared. And is not 
 order one of the greatest of heaven's appointed 
 
100 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 laws? Infidels may say all things come by 
 chance, but chance alone could never produce 
 an infidel. Order is seen in nature; in the 
 stars, those pure and beauteous orbs of light 
 that come and go as "circling months fulfil 
 their high behest," " for one star diff ereth from 
 another star in glory." It is seen in each snow- 
 capped mountain, and throughout all climes, 
 beneath all varying skies. It governs alike 
 the far-off star and the smallest flower that 
 blooms. AU nature observes degree, priority, 
 and place. Its line of order is unbroken. All 
 arts and sciences, before they can be learned, 
 must be reduced into order and method. A 
 camp well disciplined is a perfect pattern of 
 good order. The church itself is to be an army 
 with banners, to consist of governors and gov- 
 erned, some to tend, some to serve, some to 
 hear. Order is seen among the spirits of the 
 just made perfect, for " they that be wise shall 
 shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and 
 they that turn many to righteousness, as the 
 stars forever and ever." Order is seen in the 
 angels, with their respective thrones, domin- 
 ions, and principalities. 
 
 If you set all things in their proper place 
 order will crown the whole with beauty. The 
 world arose orderly, not chaos-like, crushed, 
 and bruised. What but this universal order 
 
THE PLOWMAN TAUGHT OF GOD. 101 
 
 tempted Darwin to classify ? He who inverts 
 the law of order sins against the Great Eternal 
 Cause. Let ns order our souls aright by first 
 knowing ourselves, and the existing state of 
 things, as far as they are marred or mendable ; 
 let us not be afraid of disagreeable facts ; let 
 us spend our moral heroism in striving by 
 God's help to remedy our ills, that moral order 
 in all its beauty of holiness may halo the soul. 
 Evolve your heaven in due order, out of holy 
 desires, pure affection, spiritual principle, full 
 consecration. Let it be choice, not chance; 
 steady growth, not impulse. Regulate the 
 soul by God's order of letting its happiness 
 be within its '' holy of holies " rather than in 
 its "outer courts," more or less profane; let 
 it depend on being rather than on seeming to 
 be — there is no divine order whereby counter- 
 feits can be utilized. Glory in the redeeming 
 scheme, which is the divine order of mending, 
 healing, satisfying, and beautifying the soul. 
 Thus, by bowing down to this great law, we 
 shall discover that order means the health of 
 the body, the sanity of the mind, the peace of 
 the city, the security of the state, the universal 
 victory of Christ's kingdom. As is the key- 
 stone to an arch, love to the heavenly world, 
 so is order to all things. 
 
THE VOICE OF THANKSaiYINa. 
 
 BY THE EEV. O. D. SHERMAN. 
 
 "But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanks- 
 giving." — Jonah ii. 9. 
 
 Not from court, of king, not from conncil- 
 chamber of state, not from ecclesiastical tri- 
 bunal, not from the heavens above, nor the 
 earth beneath, but from the waters under the 
 earth, from the caverns of the mighty deep, 
 our author published his thanksgiving call. 
 His name was Jonah, the son of Amittai. He 
 was a prophet of the Lord, and had been com- 
 missioned to go to Nineveh with a protest 
 against their great wickedness. The mission 
 he did not like, and sought to avoid it by 
 going down to Joppa and taking a ship for 
 Tarshish. It was of no avail. The troubled 
 waters raised their warning cry. The surging 
 biUows were God's messengers. The stern 
 king shouted in wrath after God's recreant 
 prophet. Jonah awoke from his slumber to 
 face an affrighted crew and an accusing con- 
 
 102 
 
THE VOICE OF THANKSGIVING. 103 
 
 science. At his suggestion the sailors cast 
 him overboard, and a great fish the Lord had 
 prepared swallowed him up. 
 
 Adversity has its uses. Trouble may be, 
 often is, a dispensation of mercy. The gold is 
 only purified but in the furnace-fire, and only 
 shines but by the hard and constant rubbing 
 of the burnishing-tool. The soul cut off from 
 what is but seeming good is often led to seek 
 the only real good. Short-sighted, foolish, and 
 wicked as Jonah had been, now he does a sen- 
 sible thing. He prays ; he seeks deliverance 
 of that Being whose fingers fashioned the 
 fountains of the sea, and who is Lord of life 
 and Master of death. In the second chapter 
 of Jonah we have the prayer, and it ends with 
 the declaration to which we have alluded, and 
 which forms our text on this bright Thanks- 
 giving Day (Jonah ii. 9) : " But I will sacrifice 
 unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving." 
 
 To be grateful for benefits conferred is 
 so just an instinct of our common liu- 
 manity tliat it is universally commended 
 in word, however mucli it may be belied 
 in deed. 
 
 As believers in the Bible as the revelation 
 of the mind and will of the Divine, we can but 
 note how fully its teachings harmonize with 
 this deeply implanted instinct of the human 
 
104 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 family. From the first unto the last, from 
 Eden's garden to Patmos's island, this golden 
 thread of heaven is woven into both the warp 
 and woof of man's development and the pro- 
 gressive unfolding of God's all-embracing plan. 
 The question often arises, not so much the- 
 oretically as practically, at what point in the 
 descending scale of benefits received does the 
 duty of giving thanks cease 1 " What have I 
 to be thankful for I " or its equivalent, " I do 
 not know that I have anything to be thankful 
 for," are expressions very often heard. If we 
 take the precepts of God's Word as sampled 
 by these words, " Giving thanks always for all 
 things unto God," and very many others like 
 unto it, we would find it difficult to sound a 
 depth so low, even in the deepest sea of trouble, 
 when its tide would not turn toward the Source 
 of blessings. The example connected with our 
 text is an extreme one, and if one can conceive 
 of a mortal in a sadder plight and in a seem- 
 ingly more helpless and hopeless condition 
 than poor Jonah was when he uttered it, his 
 imagination must be vivid indeed. In the 
 first place, he was sent upon an errand he did 
 not like. He had rather go to any other place 
 than Nineveh. It is hard to be thankful for 
 unwelcome duties. In the second place, his 
 sea-voyage had met a most disastrous termi- 
 
THE VOICE OF THANKSGIVING. 105 
 
 nation. Men have been cast upon desolate isl- 
 ands, upon rocky headlands, and upon desert 
 sands, and thanked God for life; but here was 
 poor Jonah, swallowed by a great fish, borne 
 beneath the dark flood whose billows lay above 
 him like mountains — a helpless prisoner in the 
 darkness of a rayless night. 
 
 We here make our first practical proposition, 
 that it is the duty of every one of God's 
 children to be thankful, and to offer daily 
 the sacrifice of thanksgiving. And, by the 
 way, a few words in regard to the word duty. 
 An impression is apt to be made that duty 
 implies always something that is unpleasant ; 
 a bar that forever lies right across the nat- 
 ural channel of enjoyment. Good and pre- 
 cious saints are striving to attain unto the 
 heights of "being willing to do every duty." 
 And sometimes the impression is unwittingly 
 made that to really be happy in this life is a 
 sin; that a clouded life, a burdened heart, a 
 painful, weary waiting, is the proper internal 
 frame; and a long face, a disfigured counte- 
 nance, and groans and lamentations the proper 
 external manifestation. That this is so, and 
 much of it of necessity so, is true. But it is 
 only so because man, in his short-sighted way- 
 wardness, has dug artificial channels for the 
 outflowing of his activities. Duty's laws, if 
 
106 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 rightly understood, are the natural harmonious 
 working and expression of every God-given 
 power of being and doing, of receiving and 
 giving ; and in that way of living there is the 
 highest enjoyment, and in giving heed to these 
 laws not only is " thy servant warned," but " in 
 keeping of them there is great reward." In 
 Jonah's case he thought that the way of duty 
 was hard, and he sought another way, and 
 found to his cost that his way led down to 
 the gates of death, and afterward that duty's 
 way was the path of safety, honor, and praise. 
 Therefore, when we say that it is the duty of 
 every one of God's children to offer the sacri- 
 fice of thanksgiving, we are not prescribing 
 that which is hard, but, on the contrary, that 
 which is life, and an increasing life ; and there 
 is a universal law in the development of this 
 idea which is manifest in every department of 
 human life. It was wise, it was prudent in 
 Jonah when about to make a new start in life 
 to commence on the solid platform of thanks- 
 giving. 
 
 Thankful for what ? If we can give a sat- 
 isfactory answer why Jonah should be thank- 
 ful, and, in his peculiar circumstances, should 
 sacrifice with the voice of thanksgiving, we 
 think that it will be sufficient argument why 
 every one should offer such a sacrifice. There 
 
THE VOICE OF THANKSGIVING. 107 
 
 were two things that Jonah could be thankful 
 for, and these two things lie at the foundation 
 of all things in the heavens above and in the 
 earth and water beneath. First, he had his 
 life. Life ! boon inestimable ! Grift direct 
 from Grod — part of his own being. "And 
 the Lord Grod formed man of the dust of the 
 ground, and breathed into his nostrils the 
 breath of life ; and man became a living soul." 
 " In him was life ; and the life was the light of 
 men." Everything in the universe has value 
 because there is life. The sun shines but to 
 give life. Light and heat mean life. The 
 mists go up from the ocean, the clouds give 
 their treasures, the morning sheds her dew- 
 drops, but to give life ; and crowning all is the 
 immortal life, the God-inbreathed life, the gift 
 of gifts — a life whose possibilities for the un- 
 folding in all harmony and beauty, for pro- 
 gressing in all knowledge and attaining all 
 heights of goodness and virtue, are unlimited. 
 Intelligent, progressive life in this world ever 
 grows in the appreciation and enjoyment of 
 the beautiful. As it beholds the sun in the 
 morning coming out of his royal chamber, ar- 
 rayed as a bridegroom for the wedding, and 
 rejoicing as a strong man to run a race, it too 
 rejoices: but what will it be when that life, 
 in its promised unfolding, shall behold the 
 
108 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 land that needs no sun, " for the glory of the 
 Lord shall lighten it " I The eye that is cul- 
 tured in the harmonies of color continually 
 grows in the enjoyment of the sense of the 
 beautiful of which each passing year makes 
 a new revelation — in the fresh brightness of 
 the spring, in the richness of summer and 
 the ripened glory of the autumn : what will it 
 be, then, when the eye, unclouded, shall open 
 in the Paradise of Grod? Our skies here at 
 times are wondrous fair; the concave above 
 us is ever a wonderland of delight : what will 
 it be, then, to a mind enlarged not simply by 
 accumulating years, with all of earth's infirmi- 
 ties, but a disenthralled mind, growing in im- 
 mortal youth, when beneath the overarching 
 skies of the upper kingdom it shall behold ce- 
 lestial beauties for evermore f Now life means 
 all of this. All is within its scope, all possible 
 even to every human soul that will seek it in 
 Grod's appointed way. 
 
 Jonah had this life, and he knew it. It was 
 intact even in the narrow confines of the in- 
 side state-room he occupied on this submarine 
 voyage. How extended or expanded his view 
 of this life was we may not know ; but sufii- 
 cient that he knew something of its worth- 
 enough, at least, for a ground of a thanksgiv- 
 ing service. 
 
THE VOICE OF THANKSGIVING. 109 
 
 The other thing that Jonah had, and that he 
 had a realizing sense of, was his God, and that 
 he had not forsaken him. He had faith enough 
 to call upon him. So these two things, God 
 and life, Jonah had, and he was sensible of 
 their value. Upon these two grand facts he 
 raised his song. With these two stones he 
 built his altar and offered his sacrifice. 
 
 Jonah has been most unmercifully criticized. 
 He has been called a coward, a traitor, a churl. 
 Doubtless much of this censure is merited ; but 
 in this case Jonah has covered himself with 
 everlasting honor, and left a lesson and exam- 
 ple as a rich legacy to all generations. A man 
 who can offer the prayer of faith and the sacri- 
 fice of thanksgiving under such circumstances 
 will assuredly come up triumphant out of every 
 tribulation. 
 
 Having thus by example and precept, we 
 trust, shown that there is abundant cause of 
 thanksgiving on the part of every individual 
 of God's creation, we think that in our par- 
 ticular cases abundant cause for thanks- 
 giving yet more abounds. To us the year 
 has given its rich treasures. The seed-time 
 failed not. The early and the latter rain was 
 not withheld. The harvest hour brought the 
 ripened grain and heavy-laden sheaf. The 
 hillsides have been covered with corn, and the 
 
110 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 valleys have given pasture for the flocks. The 
 floods have not overwhelmed us, the winds 
 have passed us unharmed, and the lightnings 
 unscathed. Famine hath not wasted, nor pes- 
 tilence devoured. No right of life, liberty, or 
 property has been denied us; no dictate of 
 conscience or religious conviction infringed 
 upon. Surely all this is ground for thanks- 
 giving. 
 
 The Lord our God has given us a goodly 
 heritage, a peerless domain rich in every ma- 
 terial resource. We greet our sun as he rises 
 from the waters of the Atlantic, and bid him 
 good-night as he sinks beneath the waves of 
 the Pacific. Our finger-tips are up amid the 
 everlasting snows of Arctic Alaska, and our 
 feet are bathed amid the coral reefs of the 
 Mexican Gulf. To us have come institutions 
 of civil government that have stood the test 
 of time, the shock of arms, and have proved 
 worthy and enduring. For such a country 
 we can and should be very thankful. Well is 
 it, around this altar, to offer sacrifice with the 
 voice of thanksgiving. 
 
 Well, say some, is not all this wonderful in- 
 crease in numbers, of wealth, of extension of 
 territory, of power, after all but an added dan- 
 ger, a source of alarm and cause of lamenta- 
 tion, rather than of thanksgiving ! That there 
 
THE VOICE OF THANKSGIVING. Ill 
 
 is danger in these things it is not wise to ignore 
 or deny. The inflow from the teeming debased 
 millions of the Old World, the accumulation of 
 wealth in a few hands, with a corresponding 
 increase of pauperism, the enormous produc- 
 tion of intoxicating liquors, and increasing 
 consumption with its entailment of poverty 
 and crime — all these, and perhaps many other 
 things, raise warning voices. 
 
 So, then, we would be thankful to-day that 
 those who seek to and do poison our body poli- 
 tic do utter their warning signals, and that 
 every such warning is a call to repentance. 
 And we are thankful that there are antidotes 
 for these ills, and that Christian courage and 
 wisdom are so zealously working by God's help 
 to make these antidotes effectual. 
 
 Every immigrant that lands at Ellis Isl- 
 and is supplied by agents of the Bible Union 
 with a Bible in his own language. The Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church Extension Society is 
 building at the rate of two churches for each 
 day in the year. South and West. I know that 
 schools and colleges are being multiplied; I 
 know that over half a million women, the best 
 and purest of our land, are earnestly working 
 and praying to put down the demon of the 
 still, and that wise and brave men second all 
 these efforts. Yes, thank Grod! rattlesnakes 
 
112 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 must rattle, and each warning note, however 
 defiant, and each pang from the poisoned fang, 
 will lead the nation to cry for and seek the 
 means of deliverance. 
 
 Let us thank Grod and take courage, and on 
 this memorial day bury all the bitterness of the 
 past, and cultivate that charity whose sweet- 
 ness "beareth all things, believeth all things, 
 hopeth all things, endureth all things." 
 
 The God of our fathers, who watched the 
 course of the "Mayflower" over the stormy 
 sea, who guarded the planting of the nation, 
 whose care has ever been about us as a wall 
 of defense, and whose presence, Uke as it was 
 to Israel of old, by pillar of cloud by day and 
 glowing fire by night, has led the march of our 
 empire westward, will not desert us now, for 
 his goodness endureth unto all generations. 
 
 Thanking Grod for past and present bless- 
 ings, let us move along the way of his own 
 appointing, and spend not alone this day, but 
 all the days that shall be given us, in songs 
 of praise, in loving words and loving deeds ; 
 then shall we ever offer an acceptable sacrifice 
 from a heart attuned and a life conformed to 
 the divine life, even with the voice of thanks- 
 giving. 
 
THE FEAST OF TABEENACLES. 
 
 BY THE REV. RALPH WILLIAMS. 
 
 '^ThoTi shalt observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, 
 after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine." — 
 Dent. xvi. 13. 
 
 On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, 
 in the autumn of the year, when all the chief 
 fruits of the ground — the corn and the oil 
 and the wine — were gathered in, this "Feast 
 of the Ingathering" was to be kept. It was 
 the "harvest-home" of the house of Israel. 
 One of the special peculiarities of the feast 
 was that during the seven days it lasted the 
 people were commanded to dwell in booths or 
 huts formed of the boughs of trees. When 
 the feast was kept in Jerusalem these were 
 constructed in the courts and on the roofs of 
 the houses, in the court of the temple, in the 
 street of the water-gate, and in the street of 
 the gate of Ephraim. They used the boughs 
 of the olive, the palm, the pine, the myrtle, 
 and other trees with thick foliage. 
 
 113 
 
114 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 All the Hebrew feasts were seasons of re- 
 joicing, but this was the gladdest and bright- 
 est of them all. The free life in the open air 
 in a beautiful clime, the meeting of old friends 
 parted by long distances at other times, the 
 huts all over the city, the fruits and palms 
 carried by them all, must have made the streets 
 gay and bright by day ; and at night the lamps, 
 torches, and music, together with the joyful 
 gatherings in the courts of the temple, gave a 
 festive character to the whole scene. 
 
 This joyful feast was kept year by year by 
 the whole people by the special command of 
 Grod himself. We see, therefore, that in set- 
 ting apart a day for the thankful remembrance 
 of the ingathering of the fruits of the earth we 
 are strictly within the lines of Scripture teach- 
 ing. The Saviour himself joined in it during 
 his earthly ministry. We ought most heartily 
 to keep such a feast, not only because it was 
 divinely appointed under the old covenant, 
 but also because the reasons for such a com- 
 memoration hold good for us as well as for 
 them. 
 
 1. The feast was an annual remem- 
 brance of their past history. 
 
 It pointed back to the great deliverance 
 from Egypt, when the fetters of Pharaoh were 
 broken, and they stood a free people on the 
 
THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 115 
 
 shore of that sea which had overwhelmed their 
 oppressors. The little leafy booths in which 
 they dwelt, which filled the streets of Jeru- 
 salem, were a remembrance of the huts and 
 tents in which their fathers had dwelt during 
 the wilderness life. And then there was Jeru- 
 salem, which they possessed, their hill-girt city, 
 the joy of the whole earth, with its glorious 
 temple of snowy marble and yellow gold glit- 
 tering in that bright Syrian sunlight upon the 
 summit of Zion. The city was the center and 
 the representative of that national life which 
 was so free, so strong, and so prosperous. 
 Who had delivered their fathers from the 
 bondage? Who had guided and sustained 
 them through the long desert march? Who 
 had enabled them to triumph over the hea- 
 then nations and conquer the land? Who 
 preserved them from the great alien empires 
 and made them prosperous from age to age ! 
 
 This feast taught them year by year to go 
 down to the roots of it all; to see what the 
 national life was resting upon, what was the 
 source of their continued strength. In the 
 feast they were taught to look not to the hu- 
 man but to the divine side of the problem. 
 They saw that their prosperity rested not on 
 the wisdom of statesmen, the might of their 
 arms, or the natural advantages or material 
 
 J 
 
116 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 resources of the land. It was not the sword 
 of David or the wisdom of Solomon or the 
 fertility of the soil which made their country 
 the glory of all lands: it was the grace and 
 goodness of their God. 
 
 This was one of the great lessons of the 
 feast. 
 
 May not we try to learn it? How many and 
 how great are our national blessings ! I know 
 no nation possessing greater ones. Our civili- 
 zation, our resources, and our freedom ; and, 
 above all, our religious privileges — the pure 
 form of the Christian faith handed down to 
 us, to which every man may conform his life 
 without fear. What are the sources of our 
 prosperity 1 Our coal ? Our iron ? The wis- 
 dom of our public men? The indomitable 
 courage of our race! These are all impor- 
 tant, but these combined could not alone make 
 our country great. Where do these come 
 from ? The ultimate source of it all is to be 
 found in the providential mercy and benevo- 
 lence of God. One element, therefore, in our 
 harvest festival should be a remembrance of 
 all our personal and national mercies, and this 
 should lead to a real thanksgiving to God for 
 all his goodness to us. 
 
 2. The feast of tabernacles was a feast 
 of tliaiikfulness for the annual Increase 
 of the earth. 
 
THE FEAST OF TABEENACLES. 117 
 
 The fruits of the earth were once more gath- 
 ered in. Wind and storm, blight and mildew, 
 locust and cankerworm had done their worst, 
 and had failed to break Grod's ancient promise. 
 The vintage was ended. The corn and the 
 wine were safely housed in the garners and 
 stores of Israel. 
 
 They knew the importance of this. A na- 
 tion's life not only wants to be founded, it 
 must be maintained. While many things may 
 be needed for sustaining the fabric of an em- 
 pire, these elementary things, the common 
 fruits of the earth, are the most necessary of 
 all. A nation may do without great states- 
 men or great warriors; it may survive with 
 no poets, no painters, no musicians; it may 
 do without great wealth or high culture, but 
 it cannot do without plowboys. The harvest 
 makes yearly provision for the common es- 
 sential need of all life; without this nations 
 must perish and man would die off from the 
 face of the earth. 
 
 The Jewish people had no doubt as to the 
 source from whence these most essential gifts 
 came to them. They believed in a personal 
 God. They celebrated the Feast of the Ingath- 
 ering with the old psalm : " Thou crownest the 
 year with thy goodness ; and thy paths drop 
 fatness." Their national life was founded by 
 God. Every harvest was a fresh act of his 
 
118 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 loving bounty ; it told them that the Grod who 
 cared for their fathers was earing for them in 
 providing for their wants and sustaining the 
 social and religious system which he had es- 
 tablished. Hence the lofty praise which runs 
 through so many of their psalms. 
 
 And is not this a special reason why we 
 should keep this Thanksgiving ! It helps us 
 to meet one of the great and pressing dangers 
 of our day. Men have discovered so many 
 precious truths about nature, they see so much 
 more clearly the perfection of its mechanism 
 and its laws, that the tendency is to admire 
 the laws and forget the Lawgiver. They as- 
 cribe the wonderful works about us to some 
 intangible force, and ignore or deny a personal 
 God. 
 
 Our annual Thanksgiving is the expression 
 before all men of our personal faith, not in 
 nature, but in the Lord of nature. It says 
 that we look upon the annual produce of the 
 earth — the corn and fruit and flowers — not as 
 the result of the working of blind material 
 laws, but as the loving and bounteous gifts of 
 God. Such a service as this enters our pro- 
 test against the theories which dishonor God 
 and banish him from the throne of his own 
 I universe. We declare in it that we cannot ac- 
 cept the pantheism which looks upon every- 
 thing as equally divine ; nor can we receive the 
 
THE FEAST OF TABEKNACLES. 119 
 
 theory of evolution, with its Protean handmaid, 
 natural selection, as sufficient in themselves to 
 account for the origin of all things. We can 
 accept no theory about the origin of nature 
 which banishes a will and wisdom and love 
 from it. When we look at the vast and com- 
 plex problem of the universe, and think also 
 of the mystery of man, we can find no sure 
 foundation for our faith but the old one : " In 
 the beginning God created the heaven and the 
 earth." 
 
 This is what we mean by our Thanksgiving. 
 We look at the earth with its abounding pro- 
 duce and believe we see there the power, the 
 goodness, the benevolence of Grod. We come 
 to thank him for the unceasing mercy with 
 which, knowing our wants, he sustains and 
 blesses our lives. 
 
 3. The Feast of Tabernacles also bore 
 ivltness to a common brotherhood. 
 
 Philo saw in this feast a testimony to the 
 original equality of the whole race. During 
 the week, rich and poor, priest, prince, and 
 peasant, lived in the booths, which were con- 
 structed of the most ordinary materials. What- 
 ever differences there might be between them, 
 there was for the time being a community of 
 living. And this met one of the dangers of 
 their day. Divided into different tribes, sepa- 
 rate and selfish interests might easily spring 
 
120 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 up among them. One tribe or family might 
 grow rich, and another might grow poor. Such 
 might soon become separated from each other 
 by an ever- widening gulf. Such a separation 
 would give rise to jealousy, discord, strife; 
 then weakness, disintegration, ruin, would 
 speedily follow. In the history of how many 
 states have we witness to this ? But the feast 
 brought home to them the great fact that they 
 were all essentially one. While there were 
 differences of tribes, ages, and conditions, they 
 were all brethren, descendants of a common 
 ancestor, holding a common faith, and sharing 
 in common spiritual mercies. The rich were 
 thus taught to be generous to the poor, and 
 the poor not to be envious of the rich. The 
 parting sections of society were drawn together 
 into a closer and more loving union. This was 
 part of the annual work of their joyful feast. 
 
 Even so has Thanksgiving Day its lesson 
 for us. It calls us all back to first principles. 
 We may have more or we may have less than 
 others; but however much or however little 
 we have, we are all dependent upon God's 
 common yearly gifts in nature. The harvest 
 tells us that, while we may see many differ- 
 ences, yet at the bottom we are all brethren, 
 childi-en of a common Father, recipients of 
 common bounties, partakers of a common re- 
 
THE FEAST OF TABEKNACLES. 121 
 
 demption, and pilgrims journeying to a com- 
 mon home. 
 
 These are among the main lessons of this 
 day. They are so great and so manifest that 
 some may be inclined to say : " Is there any 
 need for a special feast to keep them before 
 us? Do we need reminding! Will not our 
 hearts be always filled with thankfulness for 
 such mercies?" Are we always thankful! 
 Are there not large numbers who never think 
 about such things, who take all God's great 
 gifts as mere matters of course, without any 
 thanks at all ! And with the very best of us 
 is it not the tendency to think much more of 
 present wants than of past mercies ! We need 
 commemoration days. As Old Mortality went 
 round from time to time and recut and fresh- 
 ened up the wearing inscriptions on the tombs 
 of the Covenanters, so we need festival days 
 to cause us to keep great truths in remem- 
 brance and to lead us to meditate on Grod's 
 commonest gifts. 
 
 May our Thanksgiving service do this for us 
 all. May it help us to see God in the mercies 
 of life. May it draw us nearer to him than 
 we have ever been before. May it teach us, 
 also, our brotherhood. May it draw us nearer 
 to each other, and lead us to care for and help 
 each other. Then God's gracious purposes in 
 the gifts of nature will be fulfilled in us. 
 
ALL GIFTS GOD'S GIFTS. 
 
 BY THE EEV. RALPH WH^LIAMS. 
 
 " Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and 
 Cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no 
 variableness, neither shadow of turning." — James i. 17. 
 
 And how these gifts abound ! They abound 
 not in one, but in every department of hfe. 
 
 Look at these flowers with which the taste 
 and kindness of so many have beautified the 
 church ; see how perfect they are in form, how 
 beautiful they are with their delicate and 
 glowing tints of coloring, how rich and sweet 
 is their perfume! They spangle the mea- 
 dows, they adorn our gardens, they brighten 
 our homes, they deck our persons ; they help 
 to refine our lives and make them happier. 
 Whence come they? "Every good gift and 
 every perfect gift is from above." They come 
 from God. 
 
 Such beauty and such abundance char- 
 acterize all the material world on which 
 we dwell. The whole earth is full of what is 
 
 122 
 
ALL GIFTS god's GIFTS. 123 
 
 beautiful and what is useful. As we are able 
 to explore its mountains and valleys, row down 
 its sparkling rivers, or sail across its restless 
 seas, what marvelous pictures does it set be- 
 fore us ! To see the beauty of them is a source 
 of mental inspiration to us. Then there is the 
 vast produce which goes on year after year 
 with unfailing regularity : the food which is 
 brought forth out of the earth, the corn — " the 
 bread which strengtheneth man's heart " — and 
 the other fruits of the earth by which man's 
 life is sustained. Whence come they ? " Every 
 good gift and every perfect gift is from above." 
 They come from God. 
 
 We must not limit the truth to the 
 earth on which we dwell. Look upward 
 at the sky. See the multitudes of stars which 
 glitter in the midnight heavens, scattered, as 
 Herschel says, like gold-dust through the Milky 
 Way ; great central suns, each of them probably 
 accompanied by his train of subject worlds. 
 How vast and how bright are these orbs which 
 fill the immensity of space! Whence come 
 they? They, too, are the work of the same 
 Almighty Being ; he is " the Father of lights." 
 
 In facing the many subtle and perplexing 
 problems which the world presents to us, amid 
 the clash of arms with which society rings, 
 raised by those who are zealous for conflicting 
 
124 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 theories, the Christian takes his stand upon 
 a text like this as expressing the faith with 
 which he regards the mystery and the bound- 
 less good of life. G-ood gifts and perfect gifts 
 all come from God. 
 
 Let us look at our subject a little more 
 in detail. 
 
 Take another aspect of it. Go into some 
 one of our great churches or cathedrals; see 
 the grandeur and beauty of their design, the 
 noble outline of their arches, the lengthened 
 aisles, the rich coloring with which the delicate 
 tracery of their windows is filled, the artistic 
 carving in oak and stone. As you try to take 
 in the many-sided beauty of the picture before 
 you, think how strong and how real must have 
 been the sense of beauty in the mind of the man 
 who conceived and planned it all. How won- 
 derfully skilful, too, were the trained eyes and 
 hands which gave it its outward form ! What 
 a gifted architect ! what gifted craftsmen ! we 
 say, as we look at the whole or as we study 
 the details of the great work. Gifted ! By 
 whom f Whence came their intellectual power 
 and their manual skill ? Trace them to their 
 ultimate source and you can only say of them^ 
 that they were God's gifts. " Every good gift 
 and every perfect gift is from above." 
 
 Or again : 
 
ALL GIFTS god's GIFTS. 125 
 
 Take up some well-known classic from the 
 ancient world or of our own day: read Ho- 
 mer's great poems, with their freshness, their 
 quaint simplicity, their abounding illustra- 
 tions; or read those plays which unveil the 
 breadth and the ample resources of Shake- 
 speare's master mind ; or study the imagina- 
 tion and the gorgeous word-painting in Mil- 
 ton's stately lines. Think of the triumphs of 
 mind in grappling with the problems of na- 
 ture : how it has weighed the planets, measured 
 the distances of far-off suns, and analyzed the 
 light which has journeyed over such vast soli- 
 tudes of space, and thereby learned some of the 
 mystery of the substances of which those stu- 
 pendous worlds are composed. What insight 
 thinkers have gained as to the meaning of the 
 universe and the nature of man ! How great 
 and precious the possessions accumulated by 
 their labors, which we, "the heirs of all the 
 ages," have within our reach to enrich our 
 own mental life ! They have kindled the torch 
 of truth, and it shall shine for all time. With 
 what noble gifts were they dowered! Grifts 
 from whom^ What had Plato or Dante or 
 Shakespeare or Newton that they had not re- 
 ceived 1 The light which burned so brightly 
 within them came from the great central foun- 
 tain of all light and all truth. It was God's 
 
126 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 gift. It is the inspiration of the Almighty 
 which giveth understanding. 
 
 Then, further, let us think not only of 
 man's intellectual gifts, hut of his moral 
 qualities. 
 
 How wonderful it is to see a sense of right, 
 and unflinching devotion to it, as the highest 
 thing in life ! What power this wields when 
 will and conscience, hand in hand, govern the 
 passions and appetites of the fleshly nature ! 
 A man has some lofty ideal of truth and duty ; 
 it beckons him to walk in a bare and flinty 
 pathway, but in spite of this he follows it with 
 unflinching devotion to the very end. Even 
 in the old heathen life we have abundant illus- 
 trations of this. Look at Regulus, the cap- 
 tive, sent home on an embassy to the Roman 
 senate to persuade them to make peace with 
 Carthage. On reaching Rome, with patriotic 
 feeling he counseled his countrymen to con- 
 tinue the war with their enemies (foreseeing 
 the triumph which soon would crown the Ro- 
 man arms), and then calmly went back to 
 Carthage to his cruel doom. He had prom- 
 ised his captors that he would return if his 
 embassy failed. How unselfish and how true 
 was his loyalty to his country! How un- 
 shrinking was his fidelity to a spoken word ! 
 
 Then, as the sunlight comes to the Alpine 
 
ALL GIFTS god's GIFTS. 127 
 
 peak and bathes its white, stainless snow with 
 a glorious golden radiance, so Christianity 
 comes to man to strengthen, enlarge, and re- 
 fine all in him of good, bestowing the grace by 
 which natural virtue is raised up to the nobler 
 level of Christian holiness. See St. John, 
 whose whole nature was filled with divine 
 love. See St. Paul, with his clear grasp of 
 truth and his burning zeal to plant the banner 
 of the cross in all lands. What noble ideals 
 of virtue and what large measures of self-sac- 
 rificing love filled the souls of such men ! But 
 the grace given is not confined to them. It 
 runs, like a vein of gold, through every suc- 
 ceeding age of the world's history. ISTor has 
 the fearless devotion failed. Every century 
 can tell its story of the many who have gone 
 out from home and kindred to carry the torch 
 of the truth into the dark places of the earth. 
 They have given up all the comforts and en- 
 dearments of home life that they might teach 
 the ignorant and save the outcasts through the 
 power of a Saviour's love. Thank God for such 
 men ! They counted not their lives dear unto 
 them. They give abiding witness to a selfish 
 world that life may have higher aims than 
 wealth or position, that it may be nobler to be 
 smitten down by the poisoned arrow or the 
 war-club of the savage, or to fall in some 
 
128 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 fever-stricken morass amid the squalor a,nd 
 barbarism of a heathen land, than to have a 
 body clothed in pnrple and gold while the soul 
 withal is enervated by indulgence and by evil. 
 
 What a chapter about man and the universe 
 opens out before us as we ruminate on such 
 thoughts ! What moral and spiritual great- 
 ness is unveiled in the lives of the saints ! 
 Whence comes it? It is God's gift of grace 
 working in them. " Every good gift and every 
 perfect gift is from above." 
 
 Grod gives — and with what boundless 
 exuberance and love ! How largely and 
 how unceasingly, from that far-back eternity 
 when first the worlds were formed, right on 
 from age to age, has he showered down his 
 good and perfect gifts ! How lavish is the 
 produce of nature ! See the flowers that 
 spangle the meadows — in what multitudes do 
 they grow ! How thick the valleys stand with 
 corn ! See the trees in the orchard, how they 
 are laden with fruit, every branch bending to 
 the earth with its precious burden ! Brooks 
 quaintly illustrates this self-evident fact. He 
 says : '^ I have heard of the Spanish ambassa- 
 dor that, coming to see the treasury of St. 
 Mark's, Venice, that is so much cried up, he 
 fell groping at the bottom of the chests and 
 trunks, to see whether they had any bottom. 
 
ALL GIFTS god's GIFTS. 129 
 
 Being asked the reason why he did so, he an- 
 swered, ^My master's treasure differs from 
 yours and excels yours.' He was alluding to 
 the mines in Mexico, Peru, and western India. 
 All men's mints, bags, purses, and coffers may 
 be quickly exhausted and drawn dry; but God 
 is such an inexhaustible portion that he can 
 never be drawn dry. All God's treasures are 
 bottomless; all his mints are bottomless; all 
 his bags are bottomless. Millions of thousands 
 in heaven and earth feed every day upon him, 
 and yet he feels it not. He is still a-giving, 
 and yet his purse is never empty ; he is still 
 a-fiUing all the courts of heaven and all the 
 creatures on earth, and yet he is a fountain 
 that still overflows." 
 
 Here is the great fact the text declares ; what 
 duties flow from it ! 
 
 1. Worship. A tribute of praise is due 
 from the creature to the Creator. Here in 
 this our Thanksgiving we come to offer it. 
 Let us unite in blessing him with all our 
 hearts for all his good and perfect gifts. 
 
 2. Reverence. " The earth is the Lord's, 
 and the fullness thereof." It is not man's 
 world in which you live and move ; it is God's 
 world. 
 
 " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet ; for the 
 place whereon thou standest is holy ground." 
 
130 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 Eeverence yourselves: "It is he that hath 
 made us, and not we ourselves." Use not the 
 powers of life as instruments of evil. Defile 
 not that which Grod's wisdom and love have 
 planned. Reverence the bodies and souls you 
 possess. Here may we find the true dignity 
 of human life : we are created by God in his 
 own image ; we are redeemed by the cross of 
 his dear Son, and so may become his children 
 by adoption and grace. 
 
 3. Unselfish use of the gift^ of life. All 
 things are gifts to us. They are not our own ; 
 we are but stewards of what has been intrusted 
 to us by God. " A man can receive nothing, 
 except it be given him from Heaven." " What 
 hast thou that thou didst not receive I " Then 
 the duty follows as St. Peter teaches it : " As 
 every man hath received the gift, even so min- 
 ister the same one to another, as good stew- 
 ards of the manifold grace of God." 
 
 Harvest Thanksgiving is a recognition of 
 this in act. If these things are not true, then 
 our special services, our decorations, our an- 
 thems, make up but a meaningless ceremony. 
 If we can trace the produce of the earth no 
 farther than the field acted upon by human 
 toil, if we see nothing beyond the farmer, 
 what do we thank God for ? But if we believe 
 the teaching of the text, then in our Thanks- 
 
ALL GIFTS GOD'S GIFTS. Idl 
 
 giving we should act upon it by making some 
 gift to God as an acknowledgment of the debt 
 due to him. The gift should be large, because 
 of the largeness of his goodness and love to us. 
 The law of Christian giving should be like the 
 law of Christian love. We should give with 
 bounty, with hearty good-will, as God has 
 given to us. 
 
 I fear we are not always ready to do this. 
 Some, of course, may deny the assertion of 
 our text as a theory of the origin of all things. 
 They are but few when compared with the 
 vast multitude who accept the theory as a 
 theory, but deny it in their daily life. Such 
 acknowledge that every good gift comes from 
 God, but when their turn comes to give they 
 shrink back from the practical duty the theory 
 involves. As a Puritan writer points out: 
 "God gives us the best. We give God the 
 worst. We call out the bad sheep for his 
 tithe, the sleepiest hours for his prayers, the 
 clippings of our wealth for his poor, a corner 
 of the heart for his ark when Dagon sits up- 
 permost in his temple. . . . He has bowels of 
 brass and a heart of iron that cannot mourn 
 at this our requital." * 
 
 Is it to be so with us on this festal day 1 Is 
 there one in his temple who will make no offer- 
 
 * Adams. 
 
132 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 ing to Grod at all ! Will any one give the small- 
 est coin and make an offering which costs no 
 self-denial and has no love in it! Let such 
 beware. Loveless acts petrify the heart and 
 make it incapable of receiving the blessing of 
 God. 
 
 Oh, may a better spirit come to dwell in us ! 
 Let all tlie acts of life, even those un- 
 seen by others, have a divine nobleness 
 stamped upon them. In some of the old 
 sacred buildings we find every part finished 
 with the utmost care ; not only the parts al- 
 ways seen, but even those which could only 
 be reached by toilsome climbing were wrought 
 with equal care and skill. And why 1 Because 
 the whole carving and execution were consid- 
 ered as an act of solemn worship and adora- 
 tion, in which both artist and workman offered 
 up their best work to the praise of the Creator. 
 Alas, how different the modern spirit with its 
 haste and its scamping ! its aim being gaudy 
 show and quick profits, and not the high qual- 
 ity of the work it undertakes. May the nobler 
 motive run through our lives and influence all, 
 even our simplest, acts. Let it penetrate our 
 speech and our trading, and come to its full 
 flower in the worship and gifts which we offer 
 to God. 
 
 All gifts are God's gifts. The scholar's 
 
ALL GIFTS god's GIFTS. 133 
 
 wisdom, the soldier's courage, the statesman's 
 insight, the artist's genius, the mechanic's 
 skill; everything we have — our health, our 
 minds, our means, our taste, our faith, our 
 goodness — they all come from God. God gives 
 them to bless us with personal happiness and 
 with lasting good. We should use these gifts 
 of life reverently and thankfully and within 
 the limits imposed by his divine will. 
 
 We must remember, too, that God gives 
 these good and perfect gifts to us that through 
 us others may receive his blessings also. They 
 are not for our selfish, exclusive use, but for 
 the good of all. The truth we learn, the means 
 we acquire, the powers we cultivate, are so 
 many opportunities of making our lives use- 
 ful. The true Christian man is as a channel 
 through which the gifts of God may flow to 
 bless a dark and evil world. 
 
 Is it not so ? Do we not see throug^li 
 all nature an unceasing receiving and 
 giving ? The clouds borrow water from the 
 ocean, but (they pour it forth again in showers 
 upon the thirsty earth. The planets borrow 
 light from^l^e sun, and forthwith they scatter 
 it, on e\^ry /side, in the dark regions of space 
 througt^ wluch they roll. The tree receives 
 moistlipeuiid nutriment from the soil in which 
 it is /Tooted and from the air in which its 
 
134 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 branches wave, but it gives it all back in its 
 shadowing leaves and in its golden fruit in the 
 abundant autumn days. How grand a day it 
 will be for the church of God when all who 
 profess to believe this great truth learn to be- 
 lieve it with sincere conviction, and to act 
 upon it, day by day, in their words and deeds ! 
 When we can give of thought and sympathy 
 and substance, as Grod has given to us, the 
 work of Grod will soon be accomplished, and 
 the kingdom of God will come. 
 
 At this festival let us try to begin, if we have 
 never done so before. Let us strive to realize 
 the divine side of our life. Let us face the 
 fact that, all gifts are God's gifts, and not flinch 
 from any of its consequences. Offer, with 
 bended knee and humble heart, a true wor- 
 ship. Offer, of what has been given to you, a 
 loving, a Christian gift to the treasury of God. 
 
THE HAEVEST AND ITS LESSONS. 
 
 BY THE REV. J. S. PAWLYN. 
 
 '' Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understand- 
 ing : . . . Will ye not tremble at my presence, which have 
 placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual 
 decree ? . . . He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the 
 harvest."— Jer. v. 21-24. 
 
 The primary truth to which our attention 
 is directed by our text is God^s government 
 in nature; the existence of an ever-present, all- 
 gracious, and omnipotent Providence. 
 
 The first proof of God's government in 
 nature to which the propliet points us is 
 the subjection of the sea. " Fear ye not 
 me," etc. (verse 22). God " hath shut up the 
 sea with doors"; "He hath compassed the 
 waters with bounds, until the day and night 
 come to an end " ; " He holdeth the waters in 
 the hollow of his hand." Once, in human 
 form, the Creator walked upon the sea's deliri- 
 ous waters, and by his mandate hushed their 
 madness into sleep ; and it is that same un- 
 failing power which still controls the ocean. 
 
 135 
 
136 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 "Hitherto slialt thou come, but no further: 
 and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." 
 (Job xxxviii. 11.) 
 
 The next proof of God's g^overnment in 
 nature to which tlie ijropliet points us is 
 the fall of the rain. " The Lord our God 
 giveth rain," etc. (verse 24). Rain, whether it 
 comes down at regular intervals, as in Eastern 
 lands, or irregularly, as in our more changeful 
 clime, is ever the gracious gift of God : " He 
 giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters 
 upon the fields." With a recognition of the 
 hand of God in the operations of nature 
 which rebukes modern materialism, the pro- 
 phet points the faithless people to the rainfall 
 as a crowning proof of the power of Jehovah 
 in contrast to the powerlessness of the heathen 
 idols : " Are there any among the vanities of 
 the heathen that can cause rain? or can the 
 heavens give showers? Art not thou he, O 
 Lord our God? therefore we will wait upon 
 thee: for thou hast made all these things" 
 (xiv. 22). The clouds, how light, fleecy, aerial 
 they look! Yes; but science says that the 
 dynamic force needed to lift the clouds is 
 two hundred thousand times greater than the 
 united strength of all the peoples of the earth. 
 How suggestive this of the omnipotence of 
 God ! A drop of rain, how small and feeble it 
 
THE HARVEST AND ITS LESSONS. 137 
 
 appears ! Yes ; bnt Maury, in his " Physical 
 Geography of the Sea," says that a fall of rain 
 one inch deep over one fifth of the Atlantic — a 
 depth that might fall in a day or even in 
 an hour — weighs no less than three hundred 
 and sixty thousand millions of tons. How 
 immense those reservoirs which God hath 
 fixed above the firmament! All the moun- 
 tain springs, all the babbling brooks, all the 
 inland lakes, all the slowly rolling rivers — 
 rivers like the Mississippi and Amazon, whose 
 vast volume of water is immeasurable — de- 
 scend from the clouds of heaven ; and ere they 
 descend, remember, all ascend — ascend, as it 
 were, in a glorified condition, leaving ocean's 
 salt and earth's impurity behind ; ascend gen- 
 tly as the aroma of summer roses, silently as 
 the upward beating of a heaven-bound angel's 
 wing. 
 
 A third proof of God's government in na- 
 ture to which the prophet directs us — and this 
 we shall consider more at length — is the re- 
 turn, year by year, of "the appointed 
 weeks of harvest." Had we been present 
 with the multitude who, eighteen hundred 
 years ago, saw the loaves so marvelously mul- 
 tiply in the hands of Christ ; had we shared in 
 that evening meal near the shores of the Sea 
 of Galilee, what wonder we should have felt, 
 
138 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 with what reverence we should have said, 
 "Verily, this is wrought by the power of a 
 present God"! O my brethren, by slower 
 processes, but with incalculably more magnifi- 
 cent results, that miracle, in the recurrence 
 of the harvest, is repeated year by year. God 
 opens his hand and fills the granaries of the 
 world with bread. 
 
 The ancient pagan nations regarded corn — 
 using the word in its generic sense as includ- 
 ing wheat, barley, oats, maize, and rice — as the 
 special gift of the gods to the sons and daugh- 
 ters of men. The Egyptians ascribed the gift 
 to Isis ; hence they represented her as holding 
 the earth in one hand and an urn of corn in 
 the other. The Romans traced it to Ceres, 
 and from this old-world idea we derive the 
 word cereal^ by which commercially we desig- 
 nate all forms of corn. We assume that corn 
 has not and cannot be evolved — an assumption 
 borne out by the fact that a corn-field left to 
 itself will become less and less in its annual 
 yield, until it ceases to yield at all, but the 
 corn thereof will never, like other plants, re- 
 turn to an original type, it will never degener- 
 ate into grainless grasses. The most advanced 
 agricultural science can never make corn any- 
 thing different from what it is. The corn of 
 to-day is identical in nature with the corn 
 
THE HAEVEST AND ITS LESSONS. 139 
 
 which the disciples when hungry rubbed in 
 their hands and ate, which Ruth gleaned in 
 the fields of Boaz, which Gideon thrashed by 
 the wine-press of Ophrah, which Joseph stored 
 in the cities of Pharaoh — yea, which God him- 
 self gave to Adam when he sent him forth from 
 Eden to plow and sow and reap the virgin soil. 
 I hold in my hand an ear of wheat. It has 
 been said that every blade of grass is a ser- 
 mon; then, surely, this ear is an oration — an 
 oration on the wisdom, power, and benevo- 
 lence of God. How graceful is its form! 
 How carefully infolded its precious grains! 
 How mysterious was its growth ! A seed fell 
 from the sower's hand. Ere long in the dark- 
 ness of the earth, in the very heart of that 
 seemingly dead and decomposing seed, there 
 were the stirrings of a resurrection life. Two 
 tiny fibers sprouted, and with no hand near 
 but the unseen hand of God the seed so turned 
 and adjusted itself to its environment that one 
 fiber shot downward to form the root, and one 
 upward toward the daylight to form the stalk 
 and ear. It grew — grew according to a fixed, 
 unalterable pattern — grew by attracting to 
 itself suitable elements of the atmosphere and 
 earth, changing them into its own nature, and 
 appropriating them to its several parts. The 
 blade appeared above the earth, it drank the 
 
140 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 sunsliine and the shower, it opened its leafy 
 sheath, and lo ! the unfilled ear. The grains 
 formed, the ear hardened, the field was ripe 
 for the harvest — behold, the wondrous work 
 was done ! Such was the history of a single 
 ear ; and could we fully grasp the marvelous 
 mystery of its growth, could we have watched 
 with a powerful microscope the various pro- 
 cesses through which it passed, from its in- 
 cipient life in the dark damp soil to the hour 
 of its ingathering, we should have seen there- 
 in chemical and mechanical triumphs equal 
 to, nay, vastly superior to, the loftiest labors 
 ever wrought by man. And let us not forget 
 that this ear whose history we have traced is 
 but one among countless millions which have 
 just carpeted the earth with a cloth of gold. 
 Oh, how good is our Heavenly Father, how 
 bountiful his hand ! The land has yielded her 
 increase, the valleys have been covered with 
 corn, the old store hath not been eaten ere the 
 new store hath been poured at our feet ; there 
 is abundance of bread for all. But remember 
 our crops might have failed in the furrows, 
 our fields might have yielded no food, wailing 
 might have been heard in our streets, while 
 gaunt famine approached apace. Oh, God is 
 Governor over all, and did he so will could as 
 easily blast the produce of all the earth as the 
 
THE HARVEST AND ITS LESSONS. 141 
 
 produce of a single field. Well has it been said 
 that as we approach the season of harvest we 
 are within a month or two of absolute starva- 
 tion. The barrel of meal is nearly exhausted, 
 and no new supply can be obtained except 
 from the fields that are slowly ripening under 
 the smiling heavens. Were the winds per- 
 mitted to thrash these fields, or the mildew to 
 blight them, or the caterpillar to devour them, 
 or the drought or the rain to prevent the ear 
 from filling and ripening, not all the industry 
 of the poor, and not all the riches of the rich, 
 would avail to avert the most terrible catas- 
 trophe. But God has been ever mindful of his 
 covenant. Save in limited areas, sometimes 
 in our own, sometimes in other lands, the har- 
 vest has never failed, and the harvest never 
 shall, for God hath spoken it: "And Noah 
 builded an altar : and the Lord smelled a sweet 
 savor ; and the Lord said, I will not again curse 
 the ground any more for man's sake. . . . While 
 the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, 
 and cold and heat, and summer and winter, 
 and day and night shall not cease." (Gen. viii. 
 21, 22.) 
 
 This great truth of God's government 
 in nature is often unrecognized or im- 
 piously denied. "Hear now this, fool- 
 ish people, and without understanding; who 
 
l-i2 THANKSGI\^NG SEKMONS. 
 
 have eyes, and see not ; who have ears, and 
 hear not : fear ye not me 1 " etc. 
 
 Such was the solemn charge brought against 
 Grod's ancient people Israel. Sin had morally 
 blinded them ; unfaithfulness to their high re- 
 ligious privileges had made them indifferent 
 alike to the mightiest and most merciful man- 
 ifestations of the Divine Maker in their midst. 
 Once as they walked through their ripening 
 corn-fields they had chanted David's grand 
 harvest canticle : " Thou crownest the year 
 with thy goodness. The pastures are clothed 
 with flocks ; the valleys are covered with corn ;" 
 now they could lead forth their harvesters and 
 ingather the golden grain without one song of 
 praise, one votive gift upon God's high altar 
 laid. And this was but one of many sadden- 
 ing proofs of how completely they had become 
 estranged from heaven, how entirely enthralled 
 by Satan and by sin. Very sad, very humiliat- 
 ing, is the revelation made in the chapter now 
 before us of Israel's moral delinquencies as 
 well as religious unfaithfulness. In all the 
 streets of Jerusalem, under the most careful 
 scrutiny, could not be found a man — a man 
 according to the divine ideal, a man who 
 sought truth and executed righteousness and 
 delighted himself in Grod. Can we wonder at 
 the divine denunciation : " Shall I not visit for 
 
THE HAEVEST AND ITS LESSONS. 14:6 
 
 these things ? saith the Lord : and shall not my 
 soul be avenged on such a nation as this!" 
 Can we wonder that the mandate went forth 
 to the invading Babylonians : " Gro ye up upon 
 her walls, and destroy : take away her battle- 
 ments ; for they are not the Lord's " I (Jer. v. 
 9, 10.) 
 
 We would not be numbered among those 
 who are ever uttering Cassandra-like lamenta- 
 tions over our own beloved land. For fidelity 
 to God and truth ours is second to no great 
 nation under heaven. And yet we cannot 
 contemplate, on the one hand, our peerless 
 privileges, and, on the other, the moral and 
 religious condition of our country, without 
 humbly acknowledging how closely we have 
 followed in ancient Israel's steps. Material- 
 ism abounds; God's existence is denied, and 
 blind unconscious forces exalted to his throne. 
 Flowers and fruits and laughing harvests of 
 golden grain are looked upon as the inevitable 
 outcome of the " order of nature " — an order 
 which had no beginning and shall have no end. 
 If the existence of a personal God is allowed 
 he is considered too remotely centered to exert 
 any influence on the material universe or to 
 hear his creatures cry. Praise to the weather ; 
 praise to deep draining and subsoil plo^'ig 
 and artificial manures; praise to patent ma- 
 
144 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 chines for plowing and tilling and reaping and 
 binding and threshing — these, when the crops 
 are plentiful, are the cries of the farm and the 
 market-place, rather than " Praise God, from 
 whom all blessings flow." We are not, of 
 course, insensible to the need and importance 
 of secondary means; we hail the wonderful 
 advancement made of late in agricultural sci- 
 ence and mechanical appliances ; but we should 
 see in this as well as in fruitful seasons the 
 hand of God. 
 
 And are we, my brethren, free from those 
 grosser evils which the prophet here de- 
 nounces! Is not worldliness paramount in 
 our midst ! Is not honor in the market-place 
 often held dirt-cheap? Is not drunkenness 
 our country's curse 1 Vice — have we not had 
 public revelations enough to crimson our 
 cheeks and sink us into the lowest depths of 
 shame ? God has given to us a bountiful har- 
 vest because his mercy endureth forever. But 
 had not his goodness been limitless, had he not 
 remembered his covenant, had he not taken 
 into account the faithful ones who wrestle for 
 their ruined race, he might justly have said of 
 our nation, as he said of olden Israel: "Be- 
 cause thou hast forgotten the God of thy sal- 
 vation, and hast not been mindful of the Rock 
 of thy strength, the harvest shall be a heap in 
 the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.'-' 
 
THE HAEVEST AND ITS LESSONS. 145 
 
 Brethren, we have met to honor God. "We 
 have assembled to express our gratitude for 
 the gracious bounties of God's providence. 
 We have not, I trust, come empty-handed. 
 The Jews, before they grew ahenated in heart 
 and hfe, brought, with songs of joy, the first- 
 fruits of the earth ; they heaped their choicest 
 at the altar-foot. The poor untutored heathen, 
 too, hasten to lay their gifts of gratitude before 
 their idol gods. Let us see to it that by their 
 example we do not stand rebuked. But I ask 
 not only for your offering, but with louder, 
 more persuasive plea I ask for you. No offer- 
 ing can be accepted as an equivalent for per- 
 sonal consecration. When one who had been at 
 variance with Caesar sent him a crown of gold, 
 Caesar returned it, saying, "I cannot accept 
 his present until he gives to me his heart." 
 So says Jesus, the King of kings, to all who 
 would give him gold and silver and outward 
 service, but refuse to give themselves. Look 
 upon that devotee of the early world. See, he 
 builds an altar; he dresses it with graceful 
 foliage and with fragrant flowers, and upon 
 that altar lays the finest and fairest of the 
 first-fruits of the earth. And now, prostrated 
 before it, he uplifts his earnest prayer; "O 
 Infinite Creator, God of my father Adam, I 
 adore thee ! I worship thee ! I bless thee 
 for thy bounties ! Accept my grateful gifts." 
 
146 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 And what was the result 1 Was high Heaven 
 well pleased with his worship ? Listen : " Unto 
 Cain and to his offering Grod had not respect." 
 And why 1 Because Grod saw in Cain's heart 
 cherished, unrepented sin ; because Grod recog- 
 nized in his offering and in his prayer no be- 
 lief in, no setting forth of, the promised Sacri- 
 fice, Jesus the Saviour of the world. Breth- 
 ren, I pray you let the goodness of the Lord 
 in sending us rain and sunshine and fruitful 
 seasons lead you to repentance. Let the fact, 
 so present to us to-day, that the Creator has 
 once more filled the earth with bread for the 
 supply of man's lower needs, lead onward to 
 the realization that " man cannot live by bread 
 alone " ; that he has a " hungry soul " to satisfy ; 
 and that the soul's satisfaction must be sought 
 and found at the cross of Calvary. Jesus said, 
 " I am the bread of life : he that cometh to me 
 shall never hunger ; and he that believeth on 
 me shall never thirst." (John vi. 35.) " Lord, 
 evermore give us this bread ! " 
 
 " We thank thee, then, O Father, 
 
 For all things bright and good, 
 The seed-time and the harvest. 
 
 Our life, our health, our food. 
 Accept the gifts we offer 
 
 For all thy love imparts. 
 And, what thou most desirest. 
 
 Our humble, thankful hearts." 
 
THE WITNESS OF THE HARVEST. 
 
 BY THE EEV. G. A. BENNETTS, B.A. 
 
 " Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that 
 he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful sea- 
 sons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." — ^Acts xiv. 17. 
 
 Nothing is more worthy of note in St. Paul's 
 methods than the care which he always took 
 to adapt himself to the varying conditions and 
 characters of those among whom he labored. 
 He had but one gospel to preach — the gospel 
 of Christ crucified ; but he preached that gos- 
 pel with an ever-varying accent and with great 
 manifoldness of expression. He did not ab- 
 ruptly obtrude the doctrine of the cross upon 
 them ; but, beginning at some point where he 
 and his hearers were at one, in a chain of argu- 
 ment and appeal he gradually and almost im- 
 perceptibly led them up to the doctrine of 
 Jesus and the resurrection. At Athens he 
 found his text, not in Jewish lore, but in the 
 altars of their gods, and in that literature of 
 which every Greek was lawfully proud. And 
 here at Lystra, among the barbarians of Lyc- 
 
 147 
 
148 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 aonia, he speaks from that revelation of God 
 whose " line is gone out through all the earth, 
 and its words to the end of the world." 
 
 Let us not suppose, however, that the wit- 
 ness of Grod's works, to which the Apostle ap- 
 peals in my text, is of importance only to such 
 people as those of Lystra. There is, perhaps, 
 a danger of our thinking that the teachings of 
 natural religion have been superseded by those 
 of revelation. This is a great mistake. The 
 Bible always speaks of itself as being the sup- 
 plement to that revelation of himself which 
 God has made in his works. Natural theology 
 is the base of the ladder which rests upon the 
 earth, while the top of it is in heaven ; and the 
 ladder cannot stand without its base. The 
 truths of natural religion are the pediments of 
 the glorious columns of the temple of our wor- 
 ship, columns the marvelously carved capitals 
 of which are in revelation ; and those columns 
 can never afford to dispense with those pedi- 
 ments. Let a man once get a firm hold of the 
 fundamental truths revealed in nature, and let 
 him follow up with his hands the column of 
 truth which he thus touches at its base, and 
 he will find, when he enters the region of reve- 
 lation, that there is no break in the column ; 
 that he cannot even feel the line of junction, 
 but that revealed truth is in absolute conti- 
 
THE WITNESS OF THE HARVEST. 149 
 
 nuity with that of nature ; that, in fact, there 
 are not two systems of truth, but one, the base 
 of which is in nature and the summit of which 
 is in grace. 
 
 Nowhere is this more distinctly set forth 
 than in the teaching of our blessed Master 
 himself. He directs our attention to the lilies, 
 the mustard-seed, the tares, and the harvest, 
 as being divinely ordained preachers of the 
 truths of religion. Indeed, never was there 
 any teacher who lived in such intimate com- 
 munion with nature as Jesus of Nazareth. 
 He holds the key of the secret chambers in 
 which the profoundest mysteries of the uni- 
 verse are hidden, and those chambers he has 
 unlocked for us, teaching us to find the sub- 
 limest lessons of his kingdom in the common- 
 est objects of nature, every one of which is 
 stamped with the sign manual of our Hea- 
 venly Father. 
 
 Our text is one sample of the way in which 
 this great master of the art of adaptation, the 
 Apostle Paul, appealed to men, upon the foun- 
 dation of the truths which are graven by the 
 finger of God upon those common works of 
 nature which lie open to every man's vision. 
 Let us, under his guidance, listen to the har- 
 vest witness concerning some of the funda- 
 mental truths of religion. 
 
150 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 1. Observe that the operations of na- 
 ture through which God provides for tlie 
 creatures bear witness to his existence, 
 and to liis continual presence and activ- 
 ity in tlie midst of his works. 
 
 (1) I know that it is fashionable to sneer at 
 the design argument for the being of Grod. 
 But sneering is a very common device resorted 
 to by men who have no argument with which 
 to sustain their cause. I will not say that the 
 design argument has always been wisely pre- 
 sented, and that the method of its presentation 
 has not sometimes laid it open to the ridicule 
 which talks about its representation of God as 
 a great Machinist constructing the universe as 
 in a mechanic's workshop. But these are de- 
 fects in the presentation of the argument, and 
 not flaws in the argument itself. In spite of 
 all the sneers of our critics we are prepared to 
 maintain that the argument is irrefragable; 
 that the universe exhibits thought, and that 
 thought implies a Thinker ; that the universe 
 exhibits uniformity of thought, and that this 
 uniformity of thought implies that there is but 
 one Thinker, whose wisdom has laid the plans 
 of this marvelous world in which we dwell. 
 All clear thinking is forever at an end if the 
 wondrous and complicated adaptations of na- 
 ture are to be supposed to have come into 
 
THE WITNESS OF THE HAKVEST. 151 
 
 existence without an Adapter ; if endless har- 
 monies, existing in the midst of an almost in- 
 finite complication of circumstances, in which 
 current crosses current and force crosses force 
 to a degree passing conception, are maintained 
 with a uniformity which enables the astron- 
 omer to predict his eclipses with the minutest 
 accuracy, and the farmer to anticipate his har- 
 vests with tolerable certainty, without there 
 being a Harmonizer to produce the harmony. 
 Let a man stand in the midst of the whirl of 
 forces around him, and let him listen to the 
 perfect harmony of their music ; and then let 
 him say if this wonderful symphony of many- 
 toned instruments could have been produced 
 unless a Divine Composer had set the piece 
 which they so gloriously perform. No, the 
 man is without excuse who can look at this 
 masterpiece of thought and say, " There is no 
 Thinker behind it all." 
 
 (2) For a moment let us single out from the 
 midst of the manifold operations of nature 
 those to which the Apostle particularly refers 
 in my text; that is to say, those connected 
 with the supply of food for the creatures. 
 When we consider that the seasons of our 
 climate, with all their manifold effects, are 
 produced by an inclination of the axis of the 
 earth at an angle of 23 J ° to the plane of its 
 
152 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 orbit, and when we consider what would fol- 
 low if there were no snch inclination or were 
 that inclination varied through ever so small 
 an angle, we cannot but feel that there must 
 have been a Designer who gave the earth the 
 exact tilt necessary to the production of its 
 harvests. When we consider that, in the pro- 
 duction of every blade of corn and of every 
 apple upon the tree, there is a nice mathemati- 
 cal balancing of the forces of gravitation and 
 life, in order that the vital force may be able 
 to overcome the force of gravitation and shoot 
 forth the corn-stalk or the tree to the proper 
 height necessary for its fruit-bearing, we can- 
 not but believe that there must have been a 
 great Mathematician who made these delicate 
 adjustments. When we look at the marvelous 
 machinery by which all this vegetable life takes 
 up and appropriates to itself the fructifying 
 properties of the soil beneath it, of the air 
 around it, of the clouds above it, and of the 
 sun which is millions of miles away from it, 
 we are bound to confess that this machinery 
 must have had a Constructor to make it. The 
 Apostle mentions rain, and well he may, for 
 the laboratory in which Grod prepares his rain 
 is well worthy of our inspection. Consider 
 the mighty force which the sun exerts as he 
 lifts the waters up into the clouds; see how 
 
THE WITNESS OF THE HAEVEST. 153 
 
 by the air-cnrrents God carries the fruit-bear- 
 ing showers from one region to another ; look 
 into the processes of rarefaction and conden- 
 sation by which he prepares the golden drops 
 to distil fatness upon the earth, and then an- 
 swer the question which God put to Job: 
 " Hath the rain a father I or who hath begot- 
 ten the drops of dew 1 Out of whose womb 
 came the ice I and the hoary frost of heaven, 
 who hath gendered it ? " (Job xxxviii. 28, 29.) 
 
 (3) "Ah, but," says the modern objector, 
 " this is all done in obedience to law ! " Ex- 
 actly ; that is our point. It is all done in obe- 
 dience to law. And law means order. And 
 order means thought. And thought means a 
 Thinker. Alas that men should so cheat them- 
 selves with words ! They say, " It is law," and 
 think they have got rid of God ; whereas to 
 clear thinking law is the evidence of God's pres- 
 ence, and not the negation of it. The fact 
 that the whole world is under the sway of law 
 is a proof that it has been created by a De- 
 signer and is not the evolution of chance. 
 
 (4) " Well, but," says the objector again, " it 
 may be that God must have been there to give 
 the laws, but when he had given them he left 
 the universe to their sway, and now it is vain 
 to seek for God in a world which he has given 
 over to the control of law." Again we ask, 
 
154 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 " What is the use of laws without an execu- 
 tor to administer them!" He who made the 
 worlds upholds them by the word of his power. 
 He himself administers the laws which he has 
 given. God not only was in nature, he is in 
 it. The man who seeks for miracles to de- 
 monstrate the presence of God will find them, 
 if he will but look, in every blade of grass and 
 in every grain of corn. Our heaping granaries 
 speak the praises of Jehovah, and proclaim 
 that he who transformed the water into wine 
 at Cana, and who multiplied the scanty meal 
 into a feast for a multitude, is still at work in 
 the manifold operations of nature. 
 
 (5) In our stupidity, when the stupendous is 
 often repeated before our eyes we forget its 
 wondrousness, and the very regularity and 
 profusion with which God's mercies are be- 
 stowed seem to deaden our sense of obliga- 
 tion. We shall be, indeed, without excuse if 
 we fail to learn the lessons of Nature, for the 
 age in which we live is one in which her secrets 
 are being learned as never before. The reve- 
 lations of the spectroscope, microscope, and 
 telescope only increase the wondrousness of 
 God's universe, and he who regards science as 
 the foe of religion does not know what science 
 is. I wish I could awaken, especially in the 
 hearts of the young here, a passion for the 
 
THE WITNESS OF THE HARVEST. 155 
 
 devout study of God's works. Let me beg 
 you to endeavor to ascertain as much as you 
 can about that wonderful revelation of God 
 which modern science has unveiled in the 
 world about you. Avoid the theories of athe- 
 istic scientists, but receive with gratitude every 
 new discovery of a fact or principle, and you 
 will find in nature the best aid to devotion and 
 the best expositor of the Bible. 
 
 2, Our text bids us see in the fruitful 
 seasons a proof of God's goodness toward 
 men. 
 
 In spite of all the sorrow and discord of hu- 
 man life, the Apostle declares that, even apart 
 from revelation, there is in the bounteous pro- 
 vision of God's providence abundant proof of 
 his goodness toward men. Notwithstanding 
 men's wickedness, he makes, age after age, 
 provision for their wants. Our Lord has bid- 
 den us learn the lesson of mercy from the ex- 
 ample of our Heavenly Father, who makes "his 
 sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and 
 sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." 
 (Matt. V. 45.) Nothing shows the hardness of 
 men's hearts much more than the way in which 
 they partake of the bounties of God's provi- 
 dence, without any grateful recognition of the 
 Giver. In the last analysis we shall find that 
 all our wealth depends upon the land, and 
 
156 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 that every man's livelihood really rests upon 
 the products of the soil. "We ought, therefore, 
 to bestir ourselves to return thanks to God for 
 his great goodness to us during the present 
 year. Paul declares in my text that an unen- 
 lightened heathen ought to hear the harvest 
 witness to God's goodness. How much more, 
 then, ought we, who have the light of revela- 
 tion, to acknowledge his hand in the bounty 
 of his gifts ! How careful should we be not 
 to squander these blessings in the service of 
 our lusts ! The Bible reveals to us the fact 
 that God has again and again sent famine 
 upon nations because in times of plenty they 
 have forgotten him. Let us, then, now that 
 he has smiled upon us, not abuse his gifts, but 
 let us show our gratitude by endeavoring to 
 please our Father, who has filled our garners 
 and made our fields to teem with plenty. 
 These gifts of God proclaim how lovingly he 
 provides for our happiness. He might have 
 made our food unpleasant and insipid. In- 
 stead of that he has associated much pleasure 
 even with the lowest actions of our life, to be 
 a symbol to us of his good- will respecting us 
 in all things. We condemn the ingratitude of 
 those who disregard the kindness of an earthly 
 benefactor. How much baser is our conduct 
 if we do not offer praise to him from whom 
 
THE WITNESS OF THE HAKVEST. 157 
 
 Cometh down every good and perfect gift! 
 Ungodly man, let God's mercies awaken thee 
 to a sense of thy guilt, and let gratitude to 
 him, because he has not visited thee with the 
 ruin due to thy sins, constrain thee to offer 
 the only harvest thanksgiving which God will 
 accept : forsake thy sins, and show praise to 
 him by turning to his Christ, that through his 
 Spirit thou mayest find strength for that holi- 
 ness without which all praise is as mockery in 
 his sight ! 
 
 3. The harvest witness, though valu- 
 able, is, after all, very imperfect. 
 
 Though the Apostle is ready to acknowledge 
 the value of natural theology, and declares that 
 it is inexcusable for men not to learn much 
 about God from its teachings, nevertheless he 
 notes with a strong emphasis its imperfect- 
 ness, and speaks of the period during which 
 the greater part of the world was shut up to 
 its teachings as " the times of this ignorance." 
 We have reason to bless God that we have a 
 fuller revelation, by means of which we are led 
 out of the dim twilight of natural religion into 
 the meridian splendor of gospel day. This 
 revelation in which we rejoice has not only 
 disclosed to us new truth, but has thrown a 
 new light upon the old truths. The witness 
 of God's works is clearer and more blessed to 
 
158 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 the man who has received the witness of his 
 Son. To such a man the glory of creation is 
 the glory of the Eternal Word by whom " all 
 things were made," and without whom " was 
 not anything made that was made." To the 
 eyes of faith the daily bread is the symbol of 
 him who is the true bread which came down 
 from heaven ; and the goodness which is dis- 
 played in a bountiful harvest is a gracious 
 provision of a loving Father who did not 
 spare even his own Son that he might bless 
 " his favorite creature, man." The doctrines of 
 revealed religion are not only based upon those 
 of natural theology, but they reflect a new glory 
 back upon them. May we be so taught to un- 
 derstand the earthly witness as to see in it the 
 dawn of that manifestation of God which is 
 clearly made in the triune witness of the 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to whom, as 
 the Three-One Redeemer of men, the Bounti- 
 ful Donor not only of the bread of our bodies 
 but of the bread of eternal life, we ascribe all 
 honor and glory, world without end. Amen. 
 
UNTO aOD THANKSaiVINa. 
 
 BY THE REV. J. H. C. McKINNEY. 
 ''Offer unto God thanksgiving."— Ps. xxx. 14. 
 
 It has occurred to me that it would not be 
 inappropriate on this Thanksgiving occasion 
 to present for our meditation a few things 
 for which we, as American citizens, should be 
 thankful : 
 
 1. The faith of Columbus. To this child 
 of Providence "faith was the substance of 
 things hoped for, and the evidence of things 
 not seen." By faith he went out seeking a 
 country, not knowing whither he went. It 
 was the mainspring which inspired all his 
 movements, enabling him to surmount the 
 obstacles at home and the difficulties arising 
 in his voyage in his search of the hoped-for 
 New World. Doubtless this faith was inspired 
 by the same great Spirit who moved Abraham 
 to seek a country. 
 
 Looking at our America to-day, crowned 
 with the blessings which have come to us 
 
 159 
 
160 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 since that day, onr hearts swell with gratitude 
 to oiir Heavenly Father for that faith which 
 brought Columbus to these shores. 
 
 2. The care of the Indians. The benefi- 
 cent attention which our government is be- 
 stowing upon the original inhabitants of this 
 continent is a cause for thanksgiving. A su- 
 perficial view might impress one with a seem- 
 ing injustice in assuming possession of the 
 lands occupied by the aborigines; but when 
 we investigate the subject more thoroughly 
 we can see the hand of Providence in it. The 
 Indians would — perhaps could — never have 
 made of this fair land what the Anglo-Ameri- 
 cans have. The spirit of Christianity so in- 
 fluences our government that it not only pays 
 them for the lands used by our people, but 
 furnishes them with many of the necessaries 
 of life on their reservations, besides establish- 
 ing and maintaining schools for their educa- 
 tion and opening the way for churches to 
 supply them with the gospel. Had not this 
 continent been discovered by Columbus or 
 some other person, and regenerated by the 
 energies of Christian civilization, what would 
 be its condition to-day ? 
 
 3. Benevolent institutions. We should 
 thank Grod for the establishment and mainte- 
 nance of homes for our own unfortunate citi- 
 
UNTO GOD THANKSGIVING. 161 
 
 zens. The orphan homes, the country homes, 
 the homes for the bHnd, the insane, and the 
 deaf and dumb, are fruits of Christianity. In- 
 stead of a blush of shame coming to the face 
 of those who attend these homes, and instead 
 of attaching in our thoughts or words a taint 
 of disgrace to any such, these institutions 
 should be regarded as public benefactions, 
 and a necessary stay in them as an honorable 
 privilege. 
 
 Many a good man is overtaken in life's pil- 
 grimage by misfortune, and in old age has no 
 home and no loved ones able to furnish him 
 one. It certainly is a source of thankfulness 
 to God, who has provided so many comfort- 
 able homes by the operation of his providence 
 through the machinery of human government 
 for all such. 
 
 4, Our free schools. Every loyal Amer- 
 ican heart beats in harmony with the tributes 
 of praise ascending to God for the network 
 of our free-school system, by which aU our 
 children can be educated. It is a sad reflec- 
 tion that through the neglect of parents and 
 guardians many children fail to receive the 
 educational advantages provided for them by 
 the state. A compulsory law which would re- 
 quire the attendance of children at school 
 would be as reasonable and just as the one 
 
162 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 wMch compels citizens to pay taxes to sup- 
 port the schools. " Knowledge is power " — for 
 evil as well as good. An educated man with 
 a vicious heart can do more harm than if he 
 were ignorant. It is therefore essential that 
 the moral and spiritual nature be purified and 
 disciplined as well as the intellectual. Herein 
 is a good reason for the introduction of the 
 Holy Bible into our public schools. It causes 
 emotions of gratitude to arise to the Giver of 
 every good and perfect gift to know that he 
 has provided a way whereby our people may 
 be regenerated and thus brought into a new 
 life which will fit them for good citizenship in 
 America and in heaven as weU. 
 
 Never will our schools attain to what they 
 should be until arrangements are made for the 
 proper training of the physical and spiritual 
 as well as the mental nature of our children. 
 
 5. Religious liberty. We are thankful 
 that all our people can worship God accord- 
 ing to the dictates of their own conscience, 
 none daring to molest or make them afraid. 
 The devil of persecution and disturbance is 
 bound by the strong chain of the law. All 
 congregations, large or small, assembled for 
 worship, are protected by our laws against 
 disturbers. We are also glad that our laws, 
 which protect true worshipers, likewise pro- 
 
UNTO GOD THANKSGIVING. Ibd 
 
 vide for the punisliment of those who, in the 
 name of religion, transgress the laws of both 
 God and man. Every true lover of the home, 
 which is one of the safeguards of our nation, 
 rejoices that the two-edged sword of the law 
 has cut the carbuncle of Mormonism from the 
 American body. 
 
 Closely connected with religious liberty is 
 the American Sabbath. A blow at this is a 
 stroke at that. Those who from other nations 
 become American citizens should remember 
 the Sabbath day to keep it holy, and not be 
 allowed to introduce among our people their 
 loose ideas and customs respecting this sacred 
 day. God's plan of one day of rest after six 
 of work is a wise one. Man needs it physi- 
 cally, mentally, and spiritually. It would be 
 much to the advantage of our people every 
 way if all individuals and corporations would 
 strictly observe this reasonable arrangement 
 of God and*man. It is to be regretted that 
 some among us desecrate the holy Sabbath by 
 transacting business and indulging in worldly 
 pleasures on the Lord's day. For this day of 
 rest and recuperation we devoutly thank God. 
 
 6. Civil liberty. We are thankful to-day 
 for the privilege of suffrage enjoyed by our 
 male citizens ; but the ardor of this gratitude 
 is dampened by the injustice which excludes 
 
164 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 from tlie franchise our female citizens, many 
 of whom could vote just as intelligently as we, 
 and in some cases much more judiciously. 
 
 We are glad that the wings of the American 
 eagle are outstretched to welcome to our shores 
 those who will become good and loyal citizens ; 
 but the time is at hand when our emigration 
 laws should be so amended as to exclude the 
 vicious classes from other countries. I quote 
 the following from one of our metropolitan 
 dailies : 
 
 "It is an anomaly in our system, if not a 
 disgrace, that persons of foreign birth can vote 
 here four years before they are citizens. A 
 foreigner cannot become a naturalized citizen 
 of the country until he has resided in the 
 United States five years, but he may vote 
 after being in the country one year and hav- 
 ing taken out his first papers." This is a 
 grossly unjust discrimination against native- 
 born American citizens. A person born in 
 the country, brought up in an American at- 
 mosphere, and acquainted from boyhood with 
 our Constitution and laws, must be in the 
 country twenty-one years before he can vote, 
 while a foreigner, coming here without any 
 knowledge whatever of our laws or language, 
 and thoroughly indoctrinated with anti-Amer- 
 ican ideas, can vote after being here one year. 
 
UNTO GOD THANKSGIVING. 165 
 
 This makes the right of suffrage much too 
 cheap in the case of foreigners. No person, 
 whether native or foreign born, should be 
 allowed to vote until he is a citizen. A na- 
 tive American cannot vote until he reaches 
 his majority and becomes a full fledged citi- 
 zen under the law, and a foreigner should not 
 be allowed to vote until he has completed 
 his right to become a naturalized citizen by- 
 residing in the country the full term of five 
 years. 
 
 In our America the voters are the rulers, 
 by the will of a majority of whom we consent 
 to be governed. Hence among us the ballot- 
 box is sacred. It is the ark of our covenant, 
 in which each voter puts his testimony in re- 
 gard to what he wishes the policies of the 
 nation to be. Above this is the mercy-seat, 
 where the Christian voter leaves his prayer 
 for the blessing of Grod on the principles sym- 
 bolized in the ballot which he deposits in the 
 box. It is of the most vital importance that 
 we ascertain the real majority. The only loyal 
 and honorable way to do this is by a free ballot 
 and a fair count. No voter should be allowed 
 to be influenced by strong drink, bribery, bet- 
 ting, bulldozing, or in any other unlawful way. 
 The nation's strong arm should be outstretched 
 for the protection of every legal voter in the 
 
166 THAKKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 free exercise of suffrage in all sections of this 
 great country. 
 
 There is a slavery fastening itself upon our 
 people most odious. It is the liquor slavery. 
 It enslaves the white, red, and black man. It 
 enslaves both body and soul, both in time and 
 eternity. It exists not only by its consent, 
 but is licensed by the government and most 
 of the States of the Union, thus not only 
 authorizing it, but protecting the vile traffic. 
 We are filled with mortification at the alarm- 
 ing fact that protection is afforded to this 
 boa-constrictor while it is crushing the life 
 out of our nation. The liquor league is an 
 alarming menace to our own civil liberty. 
 The saloon is not only sapping the financial, 
 physical, mental, and spiritual life of many of 
 our people, but is using its enormous power 
 in vigorous efforts to control the destinies of 
 our nation. This is a deplorable condition of 
 things, which must be corrected or we are 
 doomed to the disgraceful grave of a drunken 
 nation in the not distant future. 
 
 In conclusion, I may say that our glad hearts 
 and cheerful voices unite on this happy day 
 with the multitudes of our American people 
 in " offering unto God thanksgiving " for the 
 bounties of his providence by which we are 
 fed, clothed, housed, and warmed. He has 
 
UNTO GOD THANKSGIVING. 167 
 
 stayed the pestilence at our door, he has 
 blessed our schools, and is bringing forward 
 a patriotic and God-fearing generation to exe- 
 cute his great and benevolent design for our 
 country. He has given us a great increase in 
 material wealth and a wide diffusion of con- 
 tentment and comfort in the homes of our 
 people; he has given his grace to the sor- 
 rowing. 
 
THE JOY IN HARVEST. 
 
 BY THE REV. ARTHUR E. GREGORY. NJ 
 "The joy in harvest/' — Isa. ix. 3. 
 
 The analogies between natural and spiritual 
 growth are so many and so striking that few 
 illustrations are more apt than that which 
 represents teaching as the sowing of seed, the 
 reception of teaching as the development of 
 seed. What seed is to bread and bread to 
 physical life, that word is to thought and 
 thought to spiritual life. 
 
 The seed cast into the ground lies hidden 
 there, and goes through many wonderful pro- 
 cesses before the seed-corn multiplies into the 
 golden harvest which falls before the reaper's 
 sickle; so a word spoken in life's seed-time 
 may remain in the mind unnoticed for years, 
 yet at the last develop into the influence which 
 shall make or mar a man's life. 
 
 In the verse from which our text is taken 
 the prophet describes the gladness with which 
 men will welcome the Prince-Messiah as par- 
 taking of the character both of the joy which 
 
 168 
 
THE JOY IN HAEVEST. 169 
 
 men feel in the peaceful triumphs of the har- 
 vest-time, and of the victor's joy when he di- 
 vides the spoil of his vanquished enemy : They 
 joy before tJiee according to the joy in harvest, 
 and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 
 
 " The joy in harvest " is the joy of the re- 
 ward, the joy of victory. 
 
 1. The reward of labor. Grod gives us 
 comparatively few things ready for use. The 
 world is much more like a manufactory than 
 a storehouse of ready-made goods. God gives 
 us the raw material, but we must work it up 
 into the manifold forms in which we require 
 it for the purposes of life. God does not give 
 us bread, but the possibility of bread. He 
 gives us "the grain by which a man may 
 live " ; but we must plow and sow, must reap 
 and grind and bake, before the bare grain be- 
 comes the bread of the family board and the 
 sacramental table. Even so God gives his 
 Word, not as life, but as the possibility of life. 
 
 Man lives by bread, but not by bread alone. 
 As there is a life which bread sustains, so there 
 is a life which truth sustains. 
 
 Every man is a sower, and every man in due 
 season shall be a reaper. Whatsoever a man 
 soweth, that shall he also reap. The idler, the 
 sensual, the fool, as well as the wise, the dili- 
 gent, the godly, shall each have his harvest. 
 
170 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 Is not this the solemn lesson of the harvest- 
 time, that he who v^ould reap hereafter must 
 sow now; that he who would rest hereafter 
 must work now ? The fast-falling leaves, the 
 shortening days, remind us that we all do fade 
 as a leaf ; that life's little day is hastening to 
 its close ; that the night cometh, when no man 
 can work. 
 
 The thought of what is and of what has been 
 IS sad enough ; but oh, the infinite sadness of 
 the thought of what might have been ! How 
 different is the lot of those who have labored 
 diligently and faithfully ! Such earnest souls 
 the voice from heaven pronounces blessed. 
 For they rest from their labors; and their works 
 do follow them, 
 
 2. The reward of patience. If the earth- 
 ly husbandman has need of long patience, how 
 much more and how much longer patience 
 does he need who seeks a spiritual harvest! 
 The corn of wheat grows slowly, but God's 
 truth grows more slowly still. Grod's servant 
 may sow his seed early and diligently, but often 
 he may wait in vain through all his life for the 
 joy of the harvest. Yet if he will let patience 
 have her perfect work he shall have no need to 
 complain of his harvest. He who sowed in 
 tears shall reap in joy. He who in the morn- 
 ing sowed his seed, and in the evening with- 
 
THE JOY IN HARVEST. 171 
 
 held not his hand, shall find at last that one or 
 the other has prospered. Both shall not dis- 
 appoint his hopes ; perhaps, to his surprise and 
 infinite joy, both shall be alike good. 
 
 3. The reward of faith. Faith and pa- 
 tience always go together. The man who 
 believes can wait. When a child puts seed 
 into the ground, he does so without any of 
 that strong conviction of its vital power which 
 experience has given to his father, and so, from 
 want of faith in the seed, he appeals to sight, 
 and digs it up to see how it is getting on. 
 There are many older children who make a 
 similar mistake as to spiritual sowing. The 
 truth they speak does not bear fruit at once, 
 and, not having any strong conviction of the 
 value of the seed apart from the skill of the 
 sower, they plow up the field and sow fresh 
 seed for another crop, until they learn by ex- 
 perience that, while ill weeds grow apace, he 
 who would gather wheat into his garner must 
 wait until it has ripened. 
 
 Now the gospel sower must have faith in his 
 seed. The curse of the Christian church has 
 been men who preached the gospel without 
 really believing it. The secret of the apostles' 
 success was that they could say. We helieve, and 
 therefore speak. We cannot feel too strongly 
 the truth that the power lies in the seed, not 
 
172 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 in the sower. This is as true in the church as 
 it is in the corn-field. Our earthly harvests 
 are not sown or reaped by men of science able 
 to tell us all that has yet been learned of the 
 mysteries of life and growth, save in rare in- 
 stances, but often by unlettered laborers who 
 can scarcely sign their names or read their 
 Bibles. And many of the most precious 
 sheaves gathered into the garner of God have 
 been the fruit of the labors of unlearned and 
 ignorant men. 
 
 One of the most dangerous practical heresies 
 of our time results from this want of faith in 
 the seed of the kingdom. Men lose faith in the 
 power and attractiveness of the gospel plainly 
 preached, clearly expounded, and earnestly en- 
 forced. They substitute for it, or at any rate 
 rest their hopes of success upon, oratory, archi- 
 tecture, music, political harangues, or some of 
 the other devices for attracting congregations 
 with which the columns of religious news- 
 papers make us familiar. But if Christ's la- 
 borer loses faith in his seed he had better give 
 up sowing altogether, lest at last he be counted 
 as an enemy who sowed tares among the 
 wheat. 
 
 If any man cannot trust God's truth to live 
 and grow and bring fruit to perfection, though 
 he have all gifts of earthly wisdom and know- 
 
THE JOY IN HAEVEST. 173 
 
 ledge, though he may win wide popularity, he 
 will never have any harvest such as angel- 
 reapers gather into God's garner. But if he 
 will only take care to fill his seed-basket from 
 the storehouse of Grod's truth, he may be as 
 Unlearned as the first apostles were, yet in the 
 day of Christ he shall joy before Grod accord- 
 ing to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice 
 when they divide the spoil. 
 
 This, then, is the true joy of the harvest- 
 time, that in it hard work, long patience, stead- 
 fast faith find their great reward. Of that 
 fullness of blessing we know little yet, but we 
 do know that it will be a joy unspeakable and 
 full of glory. It is a joy set before us at pres- 
 ent, but one of such infinite blessedness that 
 we may well endure with patience and cheer- 
 fulness the toil and sweat and weariness of the 
 brief day of earthly labor. The promises of 
 Grod, the character of Christ, assure us that 
 our labor is not in vain in the Lord. There- 
 fore^ my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, un- 
 movable, always abounding in the work of the 
 Lord. 
 
THE WIDOWS CRUSE. 
 
 ''And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse 
 of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake 
 by Elijah.''— 1 Kings xvii. 16. 
 
 We have in this chapter an account of the 
 commencement of the ministry of Elijah — a 
 ministry which was full of greatness and ro- 
 mantic interest. His sudden and brief appear- 
 ances, his undaunted courage before kings and 
 multitudes alike, his fiery zeal, his unflinching 
 self-sacrifice, the glory of his departure from 
 the earth, the calm beauty of his reappearance 
 on the mount of transfiguration — these, to- 
 gether, make up the startling story of an al- 
 most unrivaled life. As we think over that 
 story we see that the keynote of his life, and 
 the secret source of all his power, was his faith 
 in Grod. There was a vivid reality in his grasp 
 of the unseen. His communion with God was 
 close and continuous. He felt that he stood 
 ever in the presence of a living God (verse 1). 
 
 174 
 
THE widow's ckuse. 175 
 
 In this cliapter we have a page of his history, 
 one of the steps in his spiritual education, a 
 part of the training by which God fitted him 
 for his high work. It is not difficult for us to 
 picture the scene. The famine was in the land. 
 He was commanded to go to Zarephath, where 
 he was to be sustained during the long and 
 trying days. 
 
 To whom in Zarephath was he sent! Who 
 would be able to supply his wants in such 
 needy days? A widow woman! A widow 
 woman? Yes, but perchance one who was 
 possessed of abounding wealth ; who had a lux- 
 urious home, with costly equipage and trains 
 of servants ; one who could clothe herself in 
 purple and fine linen and fare sumptuously 
 every day 1 The prophet reached the gates of 
 Zarephath, hot, worn, and dusty with his jour- 
 ney. The widow woman was there ; what did 
 he see! Were there signs which spoke at 
 once of wealth and social importance ? Nay. 
 He saw a thin, haggard woman, with sunken 
 eyes, with the deep lines on her face which 
 anxiety and want and sul^ering always plow 
 there. She, in her worn and faded attire, was 
 groping about with tottering steps, to gather 
 a few stray sticks, that with them she might 
 prepare what she thought would be the last 
 meal for herself and her child. She was poor, 
 
176 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 she was nearly starved, and there was famine 
 in the land. In such dark and dreadful days 
 the prophet was sent to this poor widow, who 
 was to sustain him. He finds her sharing all 
 the common want — hungry, despairing, nigh 
 to death. Yet, in spite of this, he asked her 
 to fetch him a little water to drink ; and as she, 
 with the courtesy and hospitality which have 
 always graced Eastern life, was going to bring 
 it he asked for a little food also. In reply she 
 told him the sad story of her own want and 
 despair. She and her child had come to their 
 last handful. They were about to eat that and 
 die. In answer to this, Elijah proclaimed 
 God's great promise: "The barrel of meal 
 shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil 
 fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain 
 upon the earth." She went in awe at the great 
 promise and obeyed Elijah's word, because 
 she believed it to be the word of the Lord. 
 
 1. This history illustrates the great fact 
 that God provides for man. 
 
 God's promise encouraged them to hope for a 
 continuous supply in their barrel and cruse, 
 and the promise never failed. It was clearly 
 and manifestly God's provision for them. This 
 is made clear by the poverty of the people, and 
 also by the searching famine which covered the 
 whole land. We have abounding illustrations 
 
THE widow's ckuse. 177 
 
 of the same fact. During the wilderness wan- 
 derings of the children of Israel the manna fell 
 day by day and never failed until they were 
 entering upon their inheritance and began to 
 eat the old corn of the land. So, more than 
 once during his ministry, we see Christ feeding 
 the multitudes and also turning the water into 
 wine, thus giving other instances of the same 
 truth. 
 
 Here, then, is the meaning of our harvest 
 festival. In the various developments in na- 
 ture — in the growth of leaves and grass, of corn 
 and fruits and flowers, in rain and drought, in 
 fruitful and unfruitful seasons, in production 
 and reproduction year by year and age after 
 age — we see, not only the outcome of material 
 forces, not only human culture and its reward, 
 but the bounteous gifts of Grod. We see God 
 caring for and supplying man's need. This 
 history is but a fragment and illustration of 
 the whole history of the world. It is the echo 
 of that older and wider promise which Grod 
 has always remembered and always faithfully 
 kept: "While the earth remaineth, seed-time 
 and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer 
 and winter, and day and night shall not cease." 
 
 Do we think of the great lesson of this ? 
 
 What must have been uppermost in the 
 minds of these three as they sat down to their 
 
178 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 humble fare day by day 1 They were living, 
 consciously, by the bounty of God. They had 
 not purchased that food for money ; it had not 
 been produced as the fruit of their toil. Every 
 fragment of it was distinctly and solely God's 
 gift to them. It was the bread of heaven. 
 They were eating " angels' food." What awe 
 and reverence must have filled their souls! 
 Every meal was as a sacramental act: they 
 were in the very presence, consuming the very 
 gifts, of God ! 
 
 Should it not be so also with us ! We, alas ! 
 too often take things for granted without ask- 
 ing any questions about them. We look upon 
 our daily bread, and the abundant supply for 
 the needs of life, but as the fruit of the earth 
 and the produce of our labor. And yet, if we 
 only go beyond the screen of appearance, we 
 must sooner or later come to this — that all 
 these things have their source and their con- 
 tinued vitality from God. Life ought to be a 
 holier thing. The thought of God's nearness 
 ought to fill our souls and penetrate through 
 all, even the very commonest, acts of life. God, 
 who provided for the forlorn widow and the 
 needy prophet, is still doing his bounteous 
 work and is making large and loving provision 
 for us. 
 
 2. We are led also to see the way God 
 provides. 
 
THE WIDOW'S CKUSE. 179 
 
 No large store was suddenly given to the 
 widow ; even the barrel of meal and the cruse 
 of oil were not filled up by unseen hands, but 
 as they used a little a little yet remained to 
 them; there was never much, but yet the 
 handful for their present need was never 
 wanting. God gave them their food during 
 those days of famine, but he gave them no 
 large store. Little by little, day by day — this 
 was the law in accordance with which his 
 bounty was supplied. 
 
 It was not only so in this particular in- 
 stance ; it is the general law of God's dealings 
 with man. He gives sufficient for the present 
 use, but no more. There was no storing up 
 supplies of the manna in the wilderness: it 
 was given day by day. The same law applies 
 to the gift for which, to-day, we render thanks 
 to God. Corn is an annual plant. The yearly 
 harvest only suffices for the yearly food. In 
 ordinary circumstances we cannot store it up 
 from year to year, but must sow and reap 
 every year. So is it, also, with our means. 
 What we are to have and consume in life is 
 not given to us at once, in one great store, but 
 it comes to us from time to time, from week 
 to week, or from year to year. We do not 
 like this. We often wish we could have it 
 otherwise. We are often anxious because we 
 want the much and only have the little. We 
 
180 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 think to ourselves, If our position were more 
 certain, if we had a sure income sufficient for 
 our desires, and no anxiety about its failing 
 us, if we had no worry about the next quar- 
 ter's rent, about work growing slack, or about 
 health giving way, how different life would 
 be ! But no, it is not God's order of dealing 
 with us. He does not bestow one great sole 
 gift, but small and continuous gifts. As in 
 the history he gave, day by day, just a few 
 handfuls in the barrel and a little oil in the 
 cruse, so we are to ask day by day, and are to 
 expect only sufficient for the day's need. 
 
 3. And this is to teach us the principle 
 on which we should always seek to live 
 — ^faith in God ; faith day by day. 
 
 If the other order had been followed — if 
 some giant store, with ample supplies for all 
 our wants and for all our life had been given to 
 us — how many of us would be sorely tempted 
 to put our trust in it ! We should pride our- 
 selves in possessing the store and forget Grod. 
 Our store may be small, like this barrel and 
 this cruse ; we perchance would have it larger 
 and more certain. We are over-anxious about 
 to-morrow or next year. We do not see how 
 all our needs are to be met, or what is going 
 to happen to us. But yet let us ask ourselves. 
 Are we not fed to-day ? Are we not clothed 
 
THE widow's cruse. 181 
 
 to-day? By whom? Surely what we have 
 has come to us by the loving care and bounty 
 of God. We must trust that he will be equally 
 mindful of us and as gracious to us on the 
 morrow. We are always dependent upon him. 
 Day by day, therefore, we should feel our need 
 and trust him for the necessary supply. This 
 is evidently the law for the Christian life, be- 
 cause the great pattern prayer teaches us to 
 ask for daily bread: "Grive us this day our 
 daily bread." We are not taught to pray for 
 the larger gift for which the heart too often 
 craves, but for the supply of the day's wants. 
 Christians are to pray daily for daily bread. 
 
 Here is a lesson of faith which we should all 
 strive to learn. 
 
 How blessed a season is the annual harvest- 
 home ! Amid all the strife and doubt and care 
 of our daily life the produce of the earth is 
 given from year to year with almost unvary- 
 ing regularity. Our God feeds the birds and 
 beasts which cry to him. He spangles the 
 earth and sky with an ever- varying beauty. 
 Nature sings her anthems to his power and 
 goodness. Eevelation unfolds his love. Let 
 us trust him with a larger faith. Let us trust 
 him ever. The barrel of meal shall not waste, 
 the cruse of oil shall not fail : our bread shall 
 be given to us, our waters shall be sure. " I 
 
182 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 have been young, and now am old ; yet have I 
 not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed 
 begging bread." Such was the psalmist's ex- 
 perience, and all later ages bear unfaltering 
 witness to the truth of his words. 
 
 One beautiful thought remains : 
 
 We are to give, and our store increases in 
 the giving. The poor widow woman, although 
 on the very verge of starvation, was ready to 
 share her last morsel with another in greater 
 need. She made the little cake for the prophet, 
 believing his word to be the word of God. Did 
 loss result from her giving? Nay, not loss, 
 but increase ! Griying is a consequence of re- 
 ceiving. Griving is also a condition of receiv- 
 ing more. 
 
 We need faith in God. A vivid sense of 
 God's presence, God's goodness, God's ability 
 and willingness to bless us, is an essential part 
 of every true and noble life. " Give, and it 
 shall be given unto you ; good measure, pressed 
 down, and shaken together, and running over, 
 shall men give into your bosom." Whose words 
 are these ? Do we really believe them ? Are 
 they divine words to us I Are we prepared to 
 accept and act on the principle they teach? 
 If so, we shall make a large and liberal offer- 
 ing at our Thanksgiving festival in thankful 
 recognition of all God's manifold bounty. 
 
THE WIDOW^S CRUSE. 183 
 
 Oh for an act of faith and love to-day which 
 will help the sonl to burst the fetters of sel- 
 fishness — those fetters which have bound the 
 better part of us so long and so fast ! Oh for 
 a gift to God which will help the whole man 
 to rise up to a purer and higher state of be- 
 ing ! The generous gift will be an act of self- 
 emancipation : you shall no longer be the slave 
 of self, but Grod's child, Christ's freeman. Fear 
 not to offer the material gift ; it will come back 
 a hundredfold in spiritual power. 
 
THE SOWER. 
 
 BY THE REV. GORDON CALTHROP. 
 "Behold, a sower went forth to sow." — Matt. xiii. 3. 
 
 The Saviour, gazing earnestly and tenderly 
 on a vast gathering before him, spoke the first 
 of his parables — the parable of the sower. 
 
 We find three topics to discuss : (1) the seed ; 
 (2) the sower; (3) the success. Let us con- 
 sider them in order. 
 
 1. The seed. The Saviour himself tells us 
 that the seed is the " Word of God " ; and we 
 understand by the expression " Word of God," 
 not, of course, the entire Scripture, but the 
 divine message of God's love to man, however 
 concise and concentrated may be the language 
 in which it is contained. For instance, in the 
 well-known and beautiful passage in St. John's 
 Gospel (chap. iii. 16), we have only a few more 
 than twenty words, and those of the very sim- 
 plest character ; but what a treasure of living 
 thought is packed into them ! So in the last 
 part of 1 John i. 7, there are just a dozen 
 
 184 
 
THE SOWER. 185 
 
 words ; yet they speak, not indistinctly, of tlie 
 lost estate of man, who needs cleansing from 
 his sin ; of the means whereby that cleansing 
 is effected — the shedding of the blood of a 
 person, and that person no other than the Son 
 of Grod ; of the completeness of the cleansing ; 
 and they lead ns to infer the wonder of the 
 love of the Father which could devise such a 
 plan as this. Let a man take into his heart 
 sincerely the thoughts here or elsewhere sug- 
 gested, and the statement will become to him 
 the beginning and the cause of a perfectly new 
 career — he will be a changed man. Or to 
 phrase it differently : the statement is a " seed " 
 with life in it, and it will germinate and spring 
 up and bear fruit to the glory of God. 
 
 2. The sower. Who is this? First of all, 
 the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who — as the 
 Son in whom and by whom the Father hath 
 spoken to us (Heb. i. 2) — supplies us with the 
 seed of heavenly teaching. And let us note 
 that his word is the last word, that there is no 
 one to come after him. Next, the ministers of 
 the gospel and missionaries. Next, all who by 
 speech or writing, or both, undertake to in- 
 struct their fellow-men in the ways of the 
 Lord; and among these are visitors of the 
 poor, Sunday-school teachers, and those who 
 speak of Jesus to their friends and acquain- 
 
186 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 tances ; and last, bnt not least, mothers who 
 gather their children round their knee and tell 
 them the sweet story of old, and what Jesus 
 said and did when he lived among men. These 
 all, if they have received their own teaching 
 from the Lord Jesus through his Spirit, may 
 be said to be " sowers " of the Word. 
 
 3. The success. This is only partial. Our 
 Lord speaks in the parable of four different 
 kinds of hearers of the gospel, and compares 
 them to four different kinds of soil. There is 
 
 (a) the hard-beaten path, trodden down by the 
 hoofs of horses or bullocks and the feet of men ; 
 
 (b) the shallow soil, spread over the surface of 
 an impenetrable rock ; (c) the field, from which 
 the thorns and briers and thistles and other 
 weeds have not been cleared away ; and (d) the 
 good ground, which yields a crop more or less 
 abundant, and in which alone out of the four 
 is there any real recompense of the cultivator's 
 labor and care. 
 
 As to these four classes of hearers : In (a) we 
 have the uninterested and inattentive people 
 — their hearts hardened by contact with the 
 world — who listen to the message but do not 
 heed it. They may be pleased with the way in 
 which it is put, by the manner of the speaker 
 or writer, but the message itself is nothing to 
 them. They do not recognize that they have 
 
THE SOWER. 187 
 
 any personal concern in the matter. These 
 people are not to be regarded as hopeless. 
 Affiction or some other divine destiny may 
 come and plow up the hardened soil and pre- 
 pare it for the reception of the seed. In (h) we 
 have a more hopeless class — not absolutely 
 hopeless, but more hopeless. They are the 
 emotional people, who receive the message of 
 salvation with joy, who enter with alacrity 
 and pleasure upon the Christian race, but 
 presently grow weary of it. Their religion, 
 they find, costs them something. They have to 
 sacrifice ease or interest or reputation to it ; and 
 then they back out by degrees, and return to 
 the world. They remind one of an uncoupled 
 train on a railway. Look at it! It goes 
 fast at first, but its pace is continually decreas- 
 ing ; and at last it comes to a standstill. And 
 why ? Because it is detached from the motive 
 power. The third class (c) is characterized by 
 a still greater degree of spiritual hopelessness. 
 These are they who attempt to combine the 
 service of God with the service of the world. 
 And what is the result? That, with abun- 
 dance of the leaves of profession, there are no 
 fruits of righteousness : " They bring no fruit 
 to perfection." 
 
 Now, before we go further and speak about 
 the fourth class of hearers, let us endeavor to 
 
188 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 secure ourselves against possible misapprehen- 
 sion. It is not meant that we are born into 
 one of these three classes, and that there we 
 must remain ; but rather that we have each of 
 us, in a greater or less degree, impulses, ten- 
 dencies, to be heedless or to be shallow-hearted 
 or to be worldly ; that if these tendencies be 
 resisted and overcome by the help of the Divine 
 Spirit all will be well ; but if they are yielded 
 to, and so gain the upper hand, we gravitate 
 toward one of the three classes — toward that 
 to which our character most inclines us — and 
 become fixed in it. 
 
 In the last place, let us consider the class of 
 those whom our Lord has in his mind when 
 he speaks of the good ground, which " brought 
 forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty- 
 fold, some thirtyfold." We will turn to the 
 account which St. Luke gives of the parable 
 (see chap. viii. 15), and take his version in con- 
 junction with that of his brother evangelist. 
 
 The profitable hearer is one who receives the 
 divine message — the seed of the Word — into 
 the soil of "an honest and good heart" — a 
 heart made such, of course, by the power of 
 the Holy Spirit (see Acts xvi. 14). He hears 
 it, then, as all do ; but he takes the next step 
 of " understanding " it, i.e., of recognizing its 
 practical application to himself. More than 
 
THE SOWEE. 189 
 
 this, he retains his hold upon it, in spite 
 of adverse influences from within and without. 
 " This message is for me " is the firm and per- 
 sistent conviction of his heart. "Grod has 
 spoken to me, and I believe him." More still, 
 the reception of the message produces an effect, 
 a visible effect, upon his character and conduct. 
 God, the great husbandman (John xv. 1), looks 
 for fruit from the trees he has planted. And 
 then, he perseveres to the end. He does not 
 begin and leave off. " He brings forth fruit 
 with patience," i.e., with endurance, for in all 
 work of God there is a principle of permanence. 
 What more need we say 1 Each can easily 
 apply the lessons and warnings of the parable 
 to himself. But this we may say, briefly : the 
 first step is the right reception of the divine 
 message, and the next is the firm and resolute 
 retention of it. 
 
APART FROM THE VINE. 
 
 BY THE REV. GORDON CALTHROP. 
 "Without me ye can do nothing." — John xv. 5. 
 
 These words are the words of our Lord him- 
 self about himself, and they belong to what we 
 sometimes call " the parable of the vine and its 
 branches." They might be more accurately 
 translated thus: "Apart from Me ye can do 
 nothing " — the idea being not merely that the 
 help of Jesus is required in order that we may 
 have spiritual life and bear "fruit" to the 
 praise and glory of God, but that we cannot 
 even possess spiritual life at all unless we are 
 united to him as the branch is united to the 
 tree. Have you ever seen a man " budding " 
 roses! He has a number of strong, stout 
 "briers" rooted in the earth. To them he 
 comes with a bundle of grafts in his hand, 
 and, taking one of the grafts, makes an inci- 
 sion on the stem of the brier ; puts the graft 
 into the opening, wraps a mass of clay round 
 the stem of the graft in order to exclude wind 
 
 190 
 
APAET FKOM THE VINE. 191 
 
 and rain and such like things, and then leaves 
 this brier and goes on to another, repeating 
 the same process. In due time he examines 
 his work, and probably finds that with some 
 successes there have been also some failures. 
 In the case of the failures the graft and the 
 stem have only been brought into juxtaposi- 
 tion and contact. In the case of the successes 
 the graft and the brier-stem have become 
 united, and the life, i.e., the sap of the stem, 
 flows into the graft, and he has a crop of buds 
 and flowers. This is a simple illustration, but 
 it will help us to understand how we can only 
 have spiritual vitality when Christ is one with 
 us and we one with Christ. 
 
 But let us expand the thoughts. We will 
 take three points for consideration : (1) There 
 can be no fruit without life ; (2) there can be 
 no life without union with the Lord Jesus 
 Christ; (3) there can be no union with the 
 Lord Jesus Christ without faith. 
 
 1. No fruit without life. In the natural 
 world we see this at once. You have a dead 
 tree in your garden, and you know perfectly 
 well that no amount of careful pruning, no 
 application of water or of manure to its roots, 
 will enable it to bear fruit. What it wants is 
 life, and that the Creator alone can give. So 
 with the human being. The Scripture com- 
 
192 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 pares him to a plant, and as a plant lie mnst 
 be alive before you can expect to get anything 
 from him that Grod will be pleased with and 
 will consent to accept. What can come from 
 a soul " dead in trespasses and sins " ? 
 
 2. There can be no life apart from 
 Christ. Perhaps this statement requires a 
 little explanation. We are not speaking here 
 about the life of the body or of the mind and 
 feelings — life which all persons, good and bad, 
 possess — but of a special thing — a thing by 
 which we become acquainted with God, and 
 know and love and serve him. This particu- 
 lar kind of life is a divine gift, and it is the 
 beginning or germ of " life eternal " ; and in 
 order to be possessed of it we must be pos- 
 sessed of Christ himself. See 1 John v. 12 : 
 "He that hath the Son" hath Christ as an 
 inward treasure, as an inmate dwelling in the 
 secret recesses of the soul ; hath Christ as his 
 Prophet, to teach him; his Priest, to atone 
 for and to bless him; his King, to rule and 
 direct him ; hath Christ as his " portion " (Ps. 
 cxix. 57) — he and he alone hath the life which 
 is " life indeed." Such a one is united with 
 Christ, and by virtue of this union obtains the 
 blessing we speak of. 
 
 3. No union with Christ without faith. 
 This fact is abundantly testified to in Holy 
 
APAET FBOM THE VINE. 193 
 
 Scripture, especially in the Gospel of St. John. 
 There everything is represented as hanging 
 npon faith. Without faith the human soul 
 stands aloof from Christ. By faith it comes 
 into contact with him, and receives out of his 
 fullness. The treasure-chamber, with all its 
 untold wealth, is before us, but it is necessary 
 for us to open the door and cross the threshold 
 and enter in. Faith does this for us — the faith 
 which is the work of the Spirit in our souls. 
 By faith we become possessed of Christ and 
 he becomes possessed of us; and there is a 
 living union established between him and his 
 disciple. This faith must be a hahit of the soul, 
 sustained in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 So much for our three points. Now let me 
 suggest two thoughts before we conclude : 
 
 (a) It is said, " People may be very good and 
 excellent without this union with Christ and 
 this spiritual life of which you have been 
 speaking. They may be honorable and con- 
 scientious and upright and kind and benevo- 
 lent and free from vice, and may do their duty 
 thoroughly well in their own stations. What 
 more do you want ? " Let me tell you a little 
 story. Once I was in a thunder-storm, and a 
 flash of lightning struck a tree — an oak, I think 
 — broke down a huge bough from it, and flung 
 it across the road, which I passed over a few 
 
194 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 minutes after. It was in the summer-time, 
 when the trees were in full leaf. Day by day 
 I passed that bough ; it had not been removed 
 — only pushed up under the hedge. The first 
 day the leaves were as fresh and green as be- 
 fore the storm ; the second day they were the 
 same; so on the third day. And you might 
 have said, " Well, the bough is independent of 
 the tree. It has lost none of its vitality by 
 being broken off." But on the fourth day a 
 change began to appear — the leaves seemed to 
 be withering up, and so they were ; and before 
 long the bough had lost its beauty and its life, 
 and was a poor, shrunken, miserable thing, fit 
 only to be cast into the fire and burned. There 
 you have the man who has only what nature 
 has done for him to depend upon. His good- 
 ness is an evanescent, fleeting thing. It is like 
 the prophet's " morning cloud and early dew." 
 Apart from Christ, severed from Christ, we can 
 do nothing. 
 
 {h) The subject teaches us that it is wise to 
 begin at the beginning. Fruit does not grow 
 on a dead tree. And we shall do well not to 
 expect to get life by doing good works. The 
 life comes first, and the life is the gift of Grod ; 
 and where the life is the good works are sure 
 to appear. 
 
GOD THE GIVER OF INCREASE. 
 
 "I have planted, ApoUos watered; but God gave the in- 
 crease." — 1 Cor. iii. 6. 
 
 Let us look a little at the principle the 
 Apostle lays down : God gives the increase. 
 
 1. We naturally and rightly look for 
 increase. 
 
 We want fruit as the product of our toil. 
 We all work with a distinct aim. "Who 
 planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the 
 fruit thereof ? or who f eedeth a flock, and 
 eateth not of the milk of the flock ? " The fact 
 of increase is at once one of the greatest in- 
 ducements to labor and one of the greatest re- 
 wards of it. We should soon grow weary of 
 sowing our fields if we reaped no harvests, and 
 of keeping open our shops if we made no prof- 
 it. Who would continue to work if the work 
 proved altogether barren and resultless ? 
 
 We should look for increase, also, in higher 
 things. There is the church with its work. 
 We should desire to see it grow under our 
 fostering care, its services more largely at- 
 
 195 
 
196 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 tended, its communicants ever increasing, its 
 members growing more active and earnest in 
 all good works. There are the schools, under 
 the shadow of the church, really in its charge. 
 They should be lovingly cared for and liberally 
 sustained. We should look for growing num- 
 bers and increasing usefulness. We should be 
 anxious to see the children growing up into 
 church-membership, claiming their privileges 
 and realizing their responsibilities. So the 
 church of God should be a growing power for 
 good, both at home and abroad, in the slums 
 of great cities and in the waste places of 
 heathen lands. 
 
 We should look for increase, also, in the 
 personal soul. What is our Christianity ? Not 
 a creed only, not a theology only, not a piece 
 of social organization only, but a life. It is 
 a new and higher life planted in the soul. 
 " Dead in trespasses and sins." " Born again." 
 " Quickened." A vital force takes possession 
 of the dead life. " Because I live, ye shall live 
 also." We are to "grow in grace." Growth 
 is a characteristic of life. We should look for 
 it, therefore, in the soul. The apostles could 
 say to many of the Christians of their age, 
 " Your faith groweth," " Your love groweth." 
 Can it be said of us? Is our Christian life 
 standing still ? or is it, as it ought to be, a liv- 
 
GOD THE GIVER OF INCREASE. 197 
 
 ing, growing thing ! As the years pass by can 
 we see more faith, more prayer, more grace! 
 Is the life consciously nearer God ! If we ask 
 such questions with any earnestness they lead 
 us to a second thought : 
 
 2. If we want the increase, we must 
 take the proper means. 
 
 This is true, not only of the great matters 
 of which the Apostle is speaking, but also of 
 the commonest things of daily life. It is one 
 of the great lessons of the harvest. Men must 
 clear the soil ; they must plow and break up the 
 fallow ground ; they must sow the good seed, 
 and take all known means to help its growth. 
 So is it in business. Sedulous care is one of 
 the secrets of success. As the old proverb 
 puts it, " Keep your shop and your shop will 
 keep you." So is it in education. There is 
 no royal road to learning for any man. Lan- 
 guages and sciences will not come to us by 
 some sudden inspiration, but only as the fruit 
 of hard and dreary toil ; and if you want the 
 fruit you must do the work. In every domain 
 of life Grod blesses human forethought and toil 
 and faith. It is true in the spiritual as well as 
 in the natural and mental sphere. God had 
 given the increase in the church of Corinth. 
 Their growth in the Christian faith had been 
 rapid, nay, even marvelous. But how earnest 
 
198 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 had been the labor of which this growth was 
 the reward ! St. Paul had planted with all his 
 zeal. His fiery enthusiasm had caught and 
 inflamed duller souls than his own. Apollos, 
 with his renowned eloquence, had labored too. 
 These were the antecedent conditions on the 
 human side to which that growth was to be 
 ascribed. 
 
 Have we any anxiety of this kind? Do we 
 wish our church, in the midst of its large pop- 
 ulation, to be what the ministry of the apostles 
 was to heathen, licentious Corinth ? Is it shed- 
 ding the light of Grod's truth upon the world's 
 sin ? Are we conscious of a mission to train up 
 the young, to reclaim the erring, to strengthen 
 the weak, to ennoble the base? We look for 
 increase. We even long for it. We complain 
 at times unless we see a large measure of it — 
 for the critic's office is always easy. But are 
 we taking the right means'? Are we striving 
 to plant and water? Are we by prayer and 
 work, by offerings of our time and substance 
 as gifts to the Lord, taking the right means 
 to secure it ? 
 
 So, too, as to our own souls — have we any 
 anxiety about these? Is there any daily 
 thought, any daily effort to grow in grace? 
 Are we really trying to be better — really try- 
 ingf We know we must give thought and 
 
GOD THE GIVER OF INCREASE. 199 
 
 take trouble in other things if they are to 
 prosper. No reasonable man would neglect 
 his business and expect it to flourish. Are 
 we to expect the soul to grow more pure and 
 more true in some miraculous way, apart al- 
 together from human means! Do we think 
 as much about soul prosperity as we do about 
 the success of our business, the comfort of our 
 homes, and the general prosperity and pleasure 
 of our lives I Alas, how seldom is it so ! And 
 yet all the analogy of nature teaches us we 
 must not expect increase in any region of hu- 
 man life apart from our own earnest efforts. 
 
 Yet when we have insisted on this in the 
 fullest way the great truth of the text remains : 
 that the ultimate source of all increase is to be 
 found in Grod. 
 
 3. Paul may plant, ApoUos may water ; 
 but God givetli the increase. 
 
 This is so even in the commonest things of 
 daily life. Take the ordinary annual produce 
 of the earth : man must plow, sow, and take all 
 the ordinary means which experience teaches 
 him to be necessary. Yet all human toil is but 
 digging the channel through which the stream 
 runs to his own door. He does not produce 
 the life-giving water. The ultimate causes 
 of productiveness are altogether beyond our 
 power to reach. Life, both in its origin and 
 
200 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 its continuance, is full of mystery to us. We 
 toil, and generally our toil is crowned with 
 abundant growth. But sometimes the blight, 
 the mildew, and the failure which mock our 
 efforts bring sharply home to us the fact that 
 life and increase are from Grod. So is it in 
 business life. Two men start together; the 
 conditions which promise success — such as 
 neighborhood, the conduct and industry of 
 the men, and so on — seem precisely equal. 
 Yet, while one man prospers in largest mea- 
 sure, the other goes his way to poverty and 
 forgetfulness through the bankruptcy court. 
 So it is, also, in the rampant speculation of 
 our day : a few men accumulate great wealth, 
 the many are involved in loss which brings 
 them face to face with ruin. It is, of course, 
 true, as Shakespeare says : 
 
 " There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
 Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
 Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
 Is iDOund in shallows, and in miseries." 
 
 But this only states the fact without explain- 
 ing it. The question at the root of the matter 
 is. What is it that determines a man's action 
 at the critical moment in his history ! What 
 gives the insight and the courage which en- 
 able him to grasp the happy chance 1 What 
 
GOD THE GIVER OF INCREASE. 201 
 
 sends him boundmg on the flood to fortune ? 
 Or what makes another hesitate and falter in 
 seizing the opportunity, so that he is swept 
 back by the receding tide into the shallows of 
 difficulty and want! May not this be Grod, 
 the ruler of all, who " doeth according to his 
 will," who setteth up one and putteth down 
 another? Even in the commonest things do 
 we not see that promotion cometh neither from 
 the east nor from the west nor from the south ? 
 There is no certain and unfailing way in which 
 we can grasp success. Toil is ours, but in- 
 crease is in the hands of God. 
 
 God DOES give the increase in all the many 
 regions of human life. God blesses all honest, 
 humble toil. He crowns the plowing and the 
 sowing with the golden harvest. Study is re- 
 warded with growth both in our stores of 
 knowledge and also in our mental power to 
 grasp the truth. So, also, all real spiritual 
 work is largely blessed by God. The apos- 
 tolic church was but as a grain of mustard- 
 seed in the estimation of men. A few peas- 
 ants and fishermen worked in quiet, humble, 
 obscure ways, preaching the cross and the 
 resurrection. We may make mistakes about 
 this. Imagination weaves a fairy-like spell 
 over the past ; it becomes a golden age to us. 
 Painters and poets alike conspire to give us 
 
202 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 an ideal picture of it. A St. Peter and St. 
 Paul are represented with a halo round the 
 head, as though they went about their daily- 
 work with some visible mark of divine favor 
 to distinguish them from their fellow-men. 
 But it was not so. They did what they could 
 in the by-ways of life. They preached to a 
 few listeners in a private house; to a few 
 women by the river-side ; they disputed with 
 a few argumentative souls in the school of 
 this philosopher or that ; but Grod owned their 
 labor. As they planted and watered, God gave 
 the increase. 
 
 God is ever near. Grod labors with us. 
 May we ever bear it in mind in all our work ! 
 "When we teach little children, when we say a 
 few halting words by the sick-bed, it is not 
 the human which touches the soul and builds 
 up a living faith ; it is Grod who energizes the 
 human and does his own work through our 
 instrumentality. Grod crowns our work with 
 his all-sufficient blessing. 
 
 It is true in all ways. In the personal soul 
 our religious acts, in public worship and in 
 sacraments, as well as in private devotion, are 
 planting and watering ; but faithfully used, a 
 richer divine life will possess us, for God will 
 give the increase and there will be a sure 
 growth in righteousness. In the church at 
 
A LAND OF PLENTY. 203 
 
 home let us work, and, God helping us, men 
 shall be brought out of darkness into his mar- 
 velous light. Let us pray and give to the 
 church abroad ; so strength will come for the 
 high warfare. The shadows of debased hea- 
 thenism will give way before the unsullied light 
 of the truth. Men who have lived but an ani- 
 mal life will learn to realize the meaning and 
 dignity of their manhood. Christ will be 
 known, followed, loved. 
 
 How great a lesson is here ! May we all 
 seek to learn it, and so shape our personal life 
 and our church work that Grod's increase may 
 spring up in us and around us, in high, abid- 
 ing gifts, forever to enrich and bless us ! 
 
 A LAND FLOWING WITH MILK 
 AND HONEY. 
 
 BY THE EEV. GOEDON CALTHROP. 
 
 "And they told him, and said, We came unto the land 
 whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and 
 honey ; and this is the fruit of it." — Num. xiii. 27. 
 
 The Israelites were now on the border of the 
 Promised Land. They had now the prize be- 
 fore them — almost, as it seemed, within their 
 grasp — but they had to fight for it. 
 
204 THANKSGWING SERMONS. 
 
 At this juncture the Lord directed Moses to 
 select twelve suitable men — one out of each 
 tribe, men of standing, " rulers " — and to send 
 them to explore the land. Moses did so, and 
 the men were dispatched on the perilous er- 
 rand, having received special injunctions to 
 bring back with them "of the fruit of the 
 land." 
 
 After the lapse of forty days they returned 
 to make their report. The search had been 
 thorough and exhaustive, and the report was 
 favorable, as far as the beauty of the scenery 
 and the bounty of the soil were concerned; 
 but from another point of view unfavorable, 
 for ten out of the twelve men unhesitatingly 
 declared that the conquest of the country was 
 simply impossible for them. What murmur- 
 ing their declaration led to, and what sad con- 
 sequences followed, you will, of course, remem- 
 ber. But with this part of the narrative we 
 are not concerned. We ^x our attention on 
 the fact that those who had visited the land 
 brought back with them specimens, so to 
 speak, of the produce — evidences of its mar- 
 velous fertility. 
 
 The idea thus suggested is that the true 
 disciples of the Lord Jesus are expected to 
 show to the ivorld some illustration of the nature 
 of the heavenly country to which they are jour- 
 
A LAND OF PLENTY. 205 
 
 neying. In a sense they have been there and 
 have come back. But in what sense ! 
 
 1. The idea with many persons is that the 
 future condition of man is so completely 
 diflPerent from this that it is out of the ques- 
 tion to attempt to form a conception of it. 
 Heaven, they think, is absolutely unlike earth. 
 It may be well " to go to heaven," as the phrase 
 is, when we die. But they feel themselves very 
 much in the dark as to its enjoyments and oc- 
 cupations, and half suspect that there will be 
 not very much that is attractive about it for 
 an ordinary human being. Now it is true, St. 
 Paul tells us that '^ eye hath jiot seen, nor ear 
 heard, neither have entered into the heart of 
 man, the things which God hath prepared for 
 them that love him." But it is also true, as 
 the Apostle goes on to say, that " God hath 
 revealed them unto us by his Spirit." Some 
 people, then, are in a position to understand 
 what the heavenly kingdom is like. They 
 have ideas, true ideas, about it — foretastes, 
 anticipations. In fact, "heaven" is really the 
 expansion and development of a life begun 
 here below. "He that hath the Son hath 
 life." 
 
 2. What, then, has the trne disciple to 
 show as specimens of the produce of this 
 unseen and unknown country? Briefly, 
 
206 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 the character of Christ reproduced in him by 
 the power of the Holy Spirit. It is faintly, 
 imperfectly reproduced ; still it is reproduced. 
 (See 2 Cor.' i.. 21 : " Hath anointed us.'O There 
 is the strength which overcometh the world, 
 the peace which passeth understanding, the 
 blessedness of communion with .Grod, the soul- 
 thirst for God ever renewed and ever satisfied. 
 In these things, and in such as these, the hap- 
 piness of the future state consists. And the 
 world can partly understand holiness, even 
 when it does not sympathize with it. Said 
 one, speaking of a Christian over whom the 
 Waves and, billows of a great trouble were 
 breaking, but who bore himself bravely and 
 calmly under all: "That man has a secret; I 
 wonder what it is. He has an unknown power 
 in him ; I wish I possessed it." Ah ! the more 
 Christ-like we are the more truly shall we bear 
 in our hands the " fruit " of the better land. 
 The Christ-like character is the evidence of 
 heaven's existence and the guarantee of our 
 own complete possession of it in the future. 
 
 3. It is by the presentation of these 
 fruits of the land that souls are won. 
 No doubt there are some persons in the world 
 to whom Christ and everything belonging to 
 Christ are only repulsive ; and these will scru- 
 tinize the disciple with an unfriendly eye, and 
 
A LAND OF PLENTY. 207 
 
 rejoice if ever they find, or fancy they find, 
 any inconsistency in his conduct. But there 
 are also many others of a different temper. 
 They are halting between two opinions. They 
 are well disposed, but unsettled ; and they look 
 at you, and almost envy you for the happiness 
 and the spiritual power which you seem to 
 them to possess, though you in your own 
 heart are so unsatisfied with yourself. They 
 say, not of course in words, but by their feel- 
 ings and manner, " Be Christ to us ; let us see 
 in you and through you what the Divine Mas- 
 ter is, and how he will treat us if we venture 
 to apply to him ; " or, to express it differently, 
 " Show us the fruits of the heavenly land of 
 which you think so much and speak so much. 
 You are among us as a citizen of the heavenly 
 city." (Phil. iii. 20.) " Enable us to gather 
 from your conduct what are the characteristics 
 of that noble land, of that bright and glorious 
 companionship." 
 
 And lastly, what is the practical conclusion 
 to be drawn from the whole subject thus dis- 
 cussed ! Surely it is this : that we, who pro- 
 fess to serve and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 should be careful to recognize the responsibil- 
 ity laid upon us to give a good report, like Caleb 
 and Joshua, and not a bad report, like the ten 
 other spies, of the unseen land. We shall give 
 
208 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 a bad report if our lives are not attractive and 
 are not consistent; or if we say, as the ten 
 did, " Well, it is true enough that the land is 
 glorious and magnificent, but the difficulties 
 to be overcome are so many, the foes that 
 stand in the way of occupation so powerful, 
 that it is useless to attempt to fight your way 
 into it." We shall give a good report if our 
 characters glow, even feebly, with the inner 
 light of the life of Christ ; and if, by deed as 
 well as by word, we cry, " The conflict may be 
 a formidable one, but it is not too formid- 
 able ; " and if we trust, as we should do and 
 may do, that we shall be more than conquerors 
 through Him that loved us. 
 
 THE BREAD OF LIFE. 
 
 "I am that bread of life."— John vi. 48. 
 
 We will consider i 
 
 1. The demand made by God of every- 
 body to whom the message of salvation 
 comes : " This is the work of Grod, that ye be- 
 lieve on him whom ho hath sent " (verse 29). 
 
 2. The result of compliance vritli the 
 demand : Christ becomes to us " the bread of 
 life " (verse 51). 
 
OUR DAILY BEEAD. 209 
 
 3, The world's rejection of the de- 
 mand: "This is a hard saying; who can 
 hear it!" (verse 60). 
 
 Granted that there are, as indeed there must 
 be, difficulties in the Christian religion — things 
 hard to be understood, problems for which we 
 shall find no solution, at least not in this world 
 — what shall we gain by leaving Christ? 
 Christ can do for us what no one else can. 
 No one else has — scarcely any one pretends to 
 have — "the words of eternal life." Had we 
 not better stay where we are 1 The Apostle 
 Peter obviously thought so. He was puz- 
 zled like the rest — perplexed, perhaps ; for the 
 mordent even unsettled. But what did he 
 say! "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou 
 hast the words of eternal life. And we be- 
 lieve and are sure that thou art that Christ, 
 the Son of the living God." 
 
 Shall we not be moved with gratitude 
 that the bread of life is so freely offered? 
 
 OUR DAILY BEEAD. 
 
 "Give lis this day our daily bread." — Matt. vi. 2. 
 
 From the time of the fathers there has been 
 diversity of opinion as to the precise meaning 
 of this fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer. 
 
210 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 The discussion has turned chiefly upon the 
 significance of the word bread. Some have 
 contended that by it we are to understand 
 spiritual sustenance. Some, adopting another 
 shade of this interpretation, have referred it to 
 the bread broken at the eucharist, which in 
 the early church was administered every day. 
 Others, again, hold that in this petition we ask 
 for the supply of our temporal wants. Others 
 have conjoined all the above interpretations. 
 The mystical and figurative application seems 
 to be over-refined and altogether uncalled for. 
 The Scriptures never hint that it is beneath 
 the dignity of the Most High to sustain the life 
 that now is any more than it was unworthy of 
 him to bestow it. Moreover the word bread 
 is never used in the Bible to denote spiritual 
 supplies without the addition of some attri- 
 bute, as " the bread of life," " the living bread 
 that Cometh down from heaven." On the other 
 hand we often find in Holy Writ that bread 
 stands for all kinds of nourishment, and not 
 merely that which is procured from grain. It 
 represents the fruit of trees, and in one case 
 even the milk of goats, for the Hebrew word 
 rendered food in our version is literally 
 bread. And when Amos foretells a general 
 dearth he says that there shall be a " famine 
 of bread." Inasmuch as we need clothing 
 
OUR DAILY BREAD. 211 
 
 equally with food, and as the Apostle exhorts 
 us to be content, having food and raiment, we 
 may hold safely that in this petition we beg 
 all that is requisite to support our animal life 
 — all physical necessaries. 
 
 How this prayer contrasts with those that 
 precede it ! " Thy name," " Thy kingdom," 
 '' Thy will," " Our daily bread " ! How infinite 
 the love that could bridge the measureless 
 space between them ! How deep the grati- 
 tude such kindness should call forth ! 
 
 Mark liow tlie one petition of the Lord's 
 Prayer for tliing^s temporal is fenced 
 round by five for tliing^s eternal. We 
 commence and conclude with spiritual mat- 
 ters. Let us learn the comparative insignifi- 
 cance of worldly good — that it ought to be al- 
 together subordinate and subservient to our 
 spiritual interests. Many men reverse this 
 order: everything must yield to the acquisi- 
 tion of wealth ; come what may hereafter, they 
 must be rich here. Let the soul hunger and 
 thirst, so that the body be well fed. They 
 value the treasures of earth which moth and 
 rust corrupt far more highly than the treasures 
 of heaven. It is to be feared that many Chris- 
 tians fall into a somewhat similar error. They 
 are constantly desponding about the supply of 
 their daily wants. Their earthly future does 
 
212 THANKSGmNG SEKMONS. 
 
 not look as bright as they could wish, and they 
 allow a carking care to take possession of their 
 breasts. Nevertheless they can commit their 
 souls to His keeping, believing that he is able 
 to save them to the uttermost. An old di- 
 vine says, " "We can sooner trust God for par- 
 don than provision, for a crown than a crust." 
 Can aught be more unreasonable and incon- 
 sistent ? He who spared not his own Son will 
 with him also freely give us all things. In 
 the very discourse of which our text forms a 
 part our Saviour tells us that our Heavenly 
 Father knoweth that we have need of all 
 these things before we ask him ; and asks, with 
 a conclusiveness that neither the intellect nor 
 the heart can resist, whether the same God 
 that clothes the careless lilies in such royal 
 garb, and feeds the unanxious birds from day 
 to day, can be forgetful of their wants who 
 confide in his faithfulness and obey his words. 
 He who would provide and legislate for the 
 comfort of the brute creation, he who feeds 
 the young ravens when they cry, he who hath 
 said, " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he 
 treadeth out the corn," surely cannot disdain 
 to interest himself in the wants and necessities 
 of creatures moral, intellectual, and redeemed. 
 Temporal mercies are included in the 
 covenant of grace. "Thy bread shall be 
 
OUR DAILY BREAD. 213 
 
 given thee ; and thy water shall be sure." If 
 it be ingratitude not to thank God for earthly 
 good it is impiety not to trust him for it. 
 
 Christianity is as simple and condescending 
 as it is mysterious and sublime. "While con- 
 versant with spiritual mysteries, while an- 
 nouncing the will of the Infinite, while unveil- 
 ing the wonders of eternity, it is not unmind- 
 ful of the present, and does not overlook the 
 weakness of the flesh. It stops in the midst 
 of its lofty, momentous, all-engrossing topics 
 to consult our temporal necessities and to pity 
 our infirmities ; to inquire, " Children, have ye 
 any meat!" It regards no human care, no 
 human grief, no human want as too trivial for 
 its attention and sympathy. It intermeddles 
 with every bitterness and with every joy, 
 however domestic, however personal, however 
 common, however lonely and recluse. Eeligion, 
 while it introduces such infinite relations, such 
 stupendous destinies, will mingle with our fire- 
 side feelings and exalt our work- day thoughts. 
 Hence results much of the pathos and sublim- 
 ity of that passage, " The poor have the gospel 
 preached to them." The educated, the philo- 
 sophical, the affluent cannot monopolize this 
 noblest gift, this richest blessing. The wis- 
 dom that Cometh from above condescends to 
 men of low estate. It is not confined to the 
 
214 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 colleges of the learned or the palaces of the 
 high-born. No ! it loves to visit the widow 
 and the fatherless, to commune with the sor- 
 rowful and the poor. As the same sun which 
 enlightens and harmonizes our universe, and 
 sustains the vegetable and animal world, dis- 
 dains not to pour light and gladness through 
 a cottage window, and to open the rose that 
 graces a cottage door, so the same holy truth 
 which proclaims the purposes of the Most 
 High, and reveals the secrets of the future, 
 engages to spread the table of the pious poor, 
 and to hear the cries of their children. Our 
 Lord acknowledged and honored the wants of 
 the body. This is one lesson of the three 
 miracles of feeding the multitude. It would 
 have been just as easy to remove the cravings 
 of hunger as to satisfy them. 
 
 Again, when we pray, " Give us this 
 day," etc., we acknowledge tliat we are 
 entirely dependent upon God for our 
 supplies. Though our barns may be full, 
 though we have abundance of oil and wine, 
 though our riches increase, yet we confess 
 that each day's food is a direct gift from God. 
 Not only does he give us power to get wealth, 
 but also to use it. We acknowledge, too, that 
 we have no merit on account of which we can 
 demand even daily bread at God's hands, nei- 
 
OUR DAILY BREAD. 215 
 
 ther anything with which we could purchase 
 it. Every creature is a pensioner upon God's 
 bounty. All things wait upon him who, " sea- 
 weed and seraph-life alike bestowing, delight- 
 eth his vast family to feed ;" how much more, 
 then, we, whose sins silence our every claim ! 
 Not more truly were the Israelites, whose 
 manna fell each morn, and each eve grew 
 corrupt, dependent upon God for food than 
 are we. The sower scatters the seed, and God 
 commands his clouds that they rain no rain 
 upon it, and the parched earth refuses to yield 
 the desired harvest. Or, o'er many a fruitful 
 acre appears the green promise of an abundant 
 return, and the sun hides his face, and the 
 heavy clouds deluge the ground, and the ears 
 miss their perfection. Or, one day hill and 
 dale bristle with golden grain, and the next, 
 blighted at God's word, the black ears mock 
 the hopes they raised before. Or, God lays 
 his hands upon our cattle, and we have a very 
 grievous murrain among our herds and flocks. 
 "Man doth not live by bread alone, but by 
 every word that proceedeth out of the mouth 
 of God " — this is a lesson God will have men 
 learn. 
 
 liook at the limitations by which this 
 prayer is guartled. " This day " — " day by 
 day." We do not ask for goods laid up for 
 
216 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 many years, but for the portion of a day in its 
 day. Thus are we cautioned against a grasp- 
 ing spirit, against the attempt so to heap up 
 treasures as to be independent of Grod's bounty. 
 Many would rather pray, '^ Give me each year 
 my yearly bread." That would soon change 
 to " Give me at once my life's portion." And 
 the next thing would be, when we had eaten 
 and were full, we should forget the Lord our 
 God. It is better as it is. The prodigal, who 
 took at once the portion of goods that fell to 
 him, immediately left his father's house. We 
 are kept at home by our dependence. Being 
 fed from day to day, we have certain provision 
 for the future without present care. 
 
 " Our daily bread." We need not now dis- 
 cuss the multitude of meanings that have been 
 assigned to the word here rendered daily. 
 The most probable signification is " sufficient 
 for our being." However we interpret it this 
 limitation plainly was intended to inculcate 
 moderation and contentment — two essential 
 graces of the Christian character, and also two 
 virtues enjoined by natural morality. A well- 
 governed mind will always endeavor to con- 
 tract its desires within the bounds which na- 
 ture and Providence have drawn for it. A 
 subdued and contented spirit especially be- 
 comes Christians. We are strangers and pil- 
 
OUR DAILY BREAD. 217 
 
 grims upon earth, and should show by our en- 
 tire spirit and deportment that we seek a better 
 country, that is, a heavenly. Having food and 
 raiment suited to our condition, and sufficient 
 for those who rightly look to us for their sup- 
 plies, let us be therewith content. Whatsoever 
 we have more than this let us hold it as though 
 we possessed it not. It is beyond the terms of 
 the agreement, and He who graciously gave 
 may as graciously take away. Let us bow to 
 his dispensations with lowly thankfulness. 
 Let not us, the eyes of whose understand- 
 ing the Holy Spirit hath enlightened, rush 
 into the common blunder of the world, which 
 confounds the two notions of riches and hap- 
 piness — things in themselves so widely differ- 
 ent and in fact so generally separate. "A 
 man's life" — the reality and happiness of a 
 man's life — " consisteth not in the abundance 
 of the things which he possesseth." The demon 
 of discontent haunts the couches of luxury, 
 while it finds no ingress into the cottages of 
 industry, temperance, and prayer. 
 
 " Our daily bread," i.e., the bread which is 
 ours by right, legal and moral ; which we have 
 obtained fairly, without dishonesty or oppres- 
 sion. We must not wrong our fellow-men, 
 nor even deal harshly or hardly with them. 
 Wealth gotten in this way is not ours — it be- 
 
218 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 longs to those we have robbed. It has not 
 been given by God, but stolen by us. 
 
 Again, we may gather from this word our 
 that we may pray for, and in the general ex- 
 pect, such temporal supplies as that rank in 
 society which Providence has allotted to us 
 indispensably requires, that we may be able 
 to satisfy the demands not only of necessity, 
 but of decency and propriety. Thus the 
 phrase our daily bread encourages us for a 
 continuance of those comforts which educa- 
 tion and habit have transformed into necessi- 
 ties. But it should also teach us to avoid envy 
 because some whom we may regard as less de- 
 serving than ourselves are more wealthy and 
 prosperous than we. If we use this petition 
 with the spirit and with the understanding 
 also, we shall deprecate luxury on the one 
 hand as well as extreme poverty on the other. 
 "Give me," entreats the thoughtful Agur, 
 "neither poverty nor riches; feed me with 
 food convenient for me: lest I be full, and 
 deny thee, and say. Who is the Lord ? or lest 
 I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my 
 God in vain." The two extremes of luxury 
 and penury are equally injurious to the phys- 
 ical and to the spiritual health. Want pro- 
 duces weakness and pain, and tends strongly 
 to discontent, dishonesty, and disregard of 
 
THE EARTH A TEACHER. 219 
 
 laws human and divine. Luxury is scarcely- 
 less harmful to the body, and it tempts might- 
 ily to arrogance, both toward the Most High 
 and toward the poor — two evils which are sel- 
 dom found apart from each other. He that 
 feareth not Grod regardeth not man. 
 
 Once more, in this word our we have a 
 powerful protest against a spirit of selfishness 
 and a great incentive to charity. Thus in- 
 cluding ourselves in the multitude of God's 
 pensioners, our exclusiveness must give place 
 to sympathy. And when we pray that others 
 may have all that is requisite for their bodily 
 comfort, we pledge ourselves to do our part 
 toward procuring these things for them. We 
 beg Grod to provide for them ; but if we have 
 wealth we are the stewards of God's property, 
 and are bound to be his almoners. 
 
 THE EAETH A TEACHER. 
 
 "Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee." — Job. xii. 8. 
 
 A HARVEST festival not only suggests to us 
 man's triumphs over nature ; it not only makes 
 us think of the intellectual and moral insight, 
 which, as they can accomplish so much, we 
 are all bound to use ; it leads us all further still. 
 
220 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 " Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee ; " 
 yes, much more than physical facts and the 
 laws by which matter is governed. 
 
 1. It brings us face to face with insolu- 
 ble mystery. 
 
 We should try to learn something of the 
 inner meaning of the world and of human life. 
 Science is busy mainly with the outward facts 
 with which the senses can deal. It teaches us 
 about the cells in vegetable matter of which 
 the plant is built up, as the microscope reveals 
 to curious eyes. It maps out every bone, every 
 vein, every muscle in the wonderful bodies of 
 men. It teaches the functions of them all. It 
 analyzes with searching chemical tests the sub- 
 stances of which the plant or the flesh is com- 
 posed. Science dissects, analyzes, but it does 
 not grasp the thing itself. It is easy, for ex- 
 ample, to describe a battery or a telegraphic 
 wire, but what the mysterious electricity is 
 which flies with lightning-like speed, who can 
 tell? Look, for example, at Professor Tyn- 
 dall's well-known little book on electricity. 
 It asks the question, "What is electricity?" 
 I turn to that with great interest, because it 
 is the very thing I want to know. But it is 
 somewhat disappointing reading. It tells me 
 " it was by the exercise of the scientific imag- 
 ination that Franklin devised the theory of a 
 
THE EAETH A TEACHEE. 221 
 
 single electric fluid to explain electrical phe- 
 nomena. ... It was by the exercise of the 
 same faculty that Symmer devised the theory 
 of two electric fluids, each self -repulsive, but 
 both mutually attractive." Then the last para- 
 graph of the section tells me that " this theory 
 of electric fluids is doubted by many eminent 
 scientific men." It is quite clear that the 
 learned professor's answer to the question, 
 "What is electricity?" might have been ex- 
 pressed even more briefly, in the four simple 
 words " I do not know." 
 
 The same thing meets us everywhere. Look 
 at the human ear. What an exquisite piece of 
 machinery ! How wonderful is the tiny drum, 
 which quivers with every sound that strikes 
 it ! but more wonderful still is it, not only that 
 each separate sound sets it in motion in a dif- 
 ferent way, but that it hears, that the sound 
 passes from the drum to the brain, to the liv- 
 ing consciousness. Who can explain that? 
 Take the eye, " with all its marvelously per- 
 fect attributes," " with all its inimitable con- 
 trivances for adjusting the focus to different 
 distances." But the greatest wonder is, not 
 how the picture of the external thing is printed, 
 exact in shape and color, on the little black cur- 
 tain at the back, but that it sees, that the pic- 
 ture is conveyed to the consciousness. It is 
 
222 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 said that if you took out the eye of a man or 
 an animal and held it up before any object — a 
 house or a tree, for instance — the picture of 
 that house or tree would be printed on the 
 back of the eye, but the eye would not see it, 
 because it is cut off from the living brain and 
 from the consciousness. 
 
 Why is there such a thing as consciousness ? 
 Why is it that a little nervous matter in the 
 cavity of a human skull can think ! How is 
 it that, through the action of certain muscles, 
 it can set in motion waves of sound which 
 transmit what it thinks to the nervous matter 
 which thinks in the skulls of other men ! Who 
 can explain this I No man. It is profoundest 
 mystery. It is not only a mystery to us who 
 perhaps have never made any special study of 
 science ; it is just as much a mystery to the 
 most cultured scientific man as it is to the 
 humblest man of intelligence who tries to 
 think at all about the problems of life. 
 
 Speak to the earth, and it shall teach 
 you this. It teaches humility to every 
 man. The meanest flower has in it a mystery 
 beyond all that the most powerful microscope 
 and the subtlest chemical tests can reveal. 
 Patient, teachable, humble — these words de- 
 scribe the true attitude for man when face to 
 face with the world ; not the impudent dogma- 
 
THE EARTH A TEACHEE. 223 
 
 tism which struts and brags and asserts and 
 insists that its latest guess must of necessity 
 be an eternal law of the universe. 
 
 The earth brings us face to face with insolu- 
 ble mystery. Have we thought much about 
 it ? Have we tried to sound with the plummet 
 of human knowledge and found that we can- 
 not reach the bottom I Science has its limits ; 
 do we believe that the end of our tether is but 
 the beginning of infinite vastness 1 Have we 
 ever, recognizing this, fallen down in lowly, 
 reverent worship at the foot of those altar 
 stairs which slope through darkness up to 
 God! 
 
 " Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee." 
 
 See its abounding^ beauty and produce. 
 It is a world which appeals to a man's imagi- 
 nation as well as supplies his wants. It clothes 
 and feeds his body. A table is spread before 
 us in the wilderness, as we toil and strive. 
 The bounty never fails. Our cup runneth 
 over. The earth teaches us that the mysteri- 
 ous power which has constituted it is bounte- 
 ous and good. The birds of the air are fed by 
 it, and by it, too, the flowers of the field are 
 invested with their marvelous beauty. 
 
 When we put these things together — the 
 mystery, the productiveness, the beauty, and 
 the unity of nature — they lead us to the old 
 
224 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 conclusion: the earth witnesses to Ood. 
 
 Nature testifies to the supernatural. Nature 
 is at once a fact and a parable. It conceals 
 Grod behind the working of what we call nat- 
 ural laws, and yet when we seek to probe those 
 natural laws to their depth they reveal his di- 
 vine personality. " For the invisible things of 
 him from the creation of the world are clearly 
 seen, being understood by the things that are 
 made, even his eternal power and Godhead." 
 God, in the greatness of his power, is loving 
 and gracious to us. He does good ; he gives 
 us " rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, 
 filling our hearts with food and gladness." 
 He does this age after age, and the continu- 
 ous gifts witness to his unchanging love. 
 
 The earth is a teacher. We may bring 
 its lessons yet closer home to us. We may 
 learn not only from the stars in their courses, 
 which are so vast, so magnificent, and yet so 
 distant that the telescope cannot magnify 
 them ; not only from the earth, with its pro- 
 duce and its hidden wealth, or from the sea, 
 with its beauty and its majestic force, but from 
 our own nature. There is not only the body, 
 which is so fearfully and wonderfully made, 
 but those higher things: the sense of duty — 
 the voice within which says, "I ought," "I 
 ought not;" the conscience, which calmly 
 
THE EAKTH A TEAOHEK. 225 
 
 points the way through self-sacrifice and suf- 
 fering, even to the martyr's doom, rather than 
 flinch a hair's-breadth from the path ; yes, and 
 the sense of the everlasting, too, that bound- 
 less yearning in the soul which neither life 
 nor death can quench, the gleaming light of 
 another world which shines within the soul. 
 Where do these things come from ? The sense 
 of duty, conscience, the belief in the everlast- 
 ing — are they the product of dead atoms ? Do 
 they come from nothing but carbon and phos- 
 phorus ? 
 
 Face such thoughts. They are part of those 
 priceless gifts which make up the heritage and 
 the responsibility of man. Let us count up 
 our mercies this Thanksgiving season. May 
 the remembrance of them brace our souls in 
 faith and hope, that we may live more worthy 
 of our high calling. Are we striving to do 
 this ? Do we think of the mystery and mean- 
 ing of life? With how many of us are its 
 yearnings and powers stifled by the thronging, 
 jangling interests of to-day ! With how many 
 the higher part is covered with the dust of 
 neglect ; is drugged, torpid, dead ! 
 
 " Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee." 
 You must speak if the lessons it has to 
 teach are to be impressed upon you. You 
 must seek to learn if you would possess her 
 
226 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 truth. She is a teacher, but she does not force 
 her lessons on unwilling scholars. The earth 
 will teach you. The palace is vast indeed ; the 
 treasures within are beyond all price, they 
 gleam in the everlasting light. But the door 
 seems to be shut. What is written over it! 
 " Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, and ye shall 
 find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." 
 Active, persevering interest in quest of truth 
 and righteousness is the characteristic of the 
 true Christian man. Strive to-day to begin 
 in earnest to learn the meaning and nature of 
 life, and then our Thanksgiving will be a bless- 
 ing indeed ; a blessing to-day, a blessing for- 
 ever! 
 
 THE SPRINaiNG FORTH OF EiaHT- 
 
 EOUSNESS. 
 
 BY THE REV. A. H. VINE. 
 
 " For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden 
 causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth ; so the 
 Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth 
 before all the nations." — Isa. Ixi. 11. 
 
 It is a great act that God performs before 
 our eyes during the spring and summer of our 
 year; and we shall see it many more times. 
 We are exhilarated ; but our animal pleasure 
 
SPRINGING FORTH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 227 
 
 is not enough for the celebration of this won- 
 derful season, with its reminiscence of the first 
 creation and its promise of the second. Grod 
 seems to come forth from his pavilion of dark 
 waters and thick clouds of the skies, and stand 
 in the open and say, " Behold, I make all things 
 new." 
 
 I. It is a manifestation that we see — a 
 mystery hidden during the winter months is 
 fleing revealed ; there is a breaking into visi- 
 bility everywhere of that which had been in- 
 visible. As nature hides and then reveals, " so 
 the Lord will cause righteousness and praise 
 to spring forth." 
 
 1, It is a g^reat manifestation of power 
 that we see. 
 
 We more readily associate God's power with 
 vast convulsions, but this is the continuously 
 working and gentle power of the Most High. 
 
 Mark the consummate ease with which all is 
 done ; there is no appearance of effort. " The 
 earth bringeth forth fruit of herself." There 
 is no sound. 
 
 Yet not a sheath is split, not a flower starts 
 from the earth, but it is moved to do so by 
 some power. It obeys without a word. It 
 seems irrational to dissociate power and per- 
 sonality, for it is inconceivable that power, 
 apart from personality, should have any regu- 
 
228 THANKSGIVINa SEEMONS. 
 
 lation at all. We may reasonably think, there- 
 fore, as the centurion did when he came to 
 Christ and said, " Trouble not thyself to enter 
 my house; for all things are thy servants to 
 command." 
 
 2. Again, is not this putting forth of 
 leaves a great manifestation of mind ? 
 
 Suppose we discard the word design and ac- 
 cept the word adaptation, do we escape from 
 the suggestion of mental action? It is not 
 possible to describe the facts as they appear 
 to us without using language that implies ad- 
 justment by means of mind. 
 
 Take an instance: there is a plant of the 
 orchid genus (BaryantJies), the lower lip of 
 which is hollowed out into a large basin, into 
 which drops of moisture fall from two horns 
 of the flower that project over. When the 
 basin of the flower is half full the overflow is 
 drained by a spout on one side of the flower. 
 The top of the lip so hollowed out curls over 
 the basin, and is marked by certain fleshy 
 ridges, which the bees are fond of gnawing. 
 In doing so, crowding one upon another, they 
 frequently fall into the water below, and are 
 obliged to make their exit by the overflow- 
 pipe. Now, as they crawl out by this passage 
 they brush their backs first against a point of 
 the flower which secretes a thick juice, and 
 
SPRINGING FOETH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 229 
 
 then against other points covered with the 
 down or pollen of the flower, so that their 
 backs are covered with it. 
 
 When, after their escape, they visit another 
 flower, or, as frequently happens, the same 
 again, and, as frequently happens, with the 
 same mischance, they make their escape as 
 before. But now their down-covered backs 
 brush against the point of the flower covered 
 with juice, the down is left adhering, and the 
 flower is fertilized ! So curious is the arrange- 
 ment that Mr. Darwin says ("Origin of Spe- 
 cies," p. 229) : " The most ingenious man, if he 
 had not witnessed what takes place, could 
 never have imagined what purpose all the 
 parts of the flower served." Can we persuade 
 ourselves that mind has nothing to do with 
 these adjustments 1 If not — whose mind ? 
 
 3. It is sonietliiii^ more than mind that 
 is manifested in the heauty of natui'e. 
 Beauty is only visible to reason, indeed to the 
 higher kind of reason. Your horse sees noth- 
 ing of the beauty of the landscape ; your dog 
 despises your flowers. The images of all these 
 things are reflected on their eyes as on yours, 
 but they produce no emotion. So that in na- 
 ture, it seems, special provision is made for the 
 peculiar gratification of the higher mind of 
 man. Surely it must be reason that thus ad- 
 
230 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 dresses itself to reason, and, if reason, then 
 benevolence. 
 
 The mind of man and the gracious mind of 
 God meet consciously or unconsciously in the 
 beauty of the world, so far as it is apprehended. 
 
 II. The proijhet sees in this the parable 
 of another manifestation — " So the Lord 
 Grod," etc. — a great moral and spiritual 
 manifestation. It is pathetic that he should 
 maintain this faith throughout the " winter of 
 his discontent." 
 
 May we then consider that forces are gath- 
 ering, through long centuries, that will by and 
 by break into visibility, and even suddenly ? 
 
 This is a striking and a charming passage. 
 Once in a year this visible earth manifests its 
 hidden powers ; " then the leaves come out, and 
 the blossoms on the fruit-trees ; the flowers and 
 the grass and corn spring up. There is a rush 
 and burst outwardly of the hidden life which 
 God has lodged in the material world. So 
 shall it be one day with the invisible world of 
 light and glory, when God gives the word. A 
 world of saints and angels, a glorious world, 
 the palace of God, the mount of the Lord of 
 hosts, the heavenly Jesus, the throne of God 
 and Christ — all these wonders, everlasting, all- 
 precious, mysterious, incomprehensible, lie hid 
 in what we see. What we see is the outward 
 
A BEGGAR IN HAKVEST. 231 
 
 shell of an eternal kingdom, and on tliat king- 
 dom we fix the eyes of our faith." (Newman.) 
 
 And what saith the Scripture? "As the 
 rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven," 
 etc. That is, all spiritual influences are trea- 
 sured up, and there is a conservation of spir- 
 itual force as of natural. 
 
 But the preparation is long, as the winter 
 that precedes the spring. 
 
 How great the joy of knowing that we may 
 help to provide or strengthen the forces of the 
 world's true vernal hour ! What happiness to 
 sow the seeds of light and peace ! 
 
 III. Finally, remember that we shall be 
 mianifested. (2 Cor. v. 10.) Forces are gath- 
 ering within us. When we " awake," may our 
 surprise, even in respect of ourselves^ be like 
 that with which we look upon the new hea- 
 vens and the new earth ! 
 
 A BEaaAE IN HARVEST. 
 
 BY THE REV. G. A. BENNETTS, B.A. 
 
 " The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold ; there- 
 fore shall he begin harvest, and have nothing." — Prov. xx. 4. 
 
 Introduction. — No life is really secular. 
 Plowing and sowing and mowing are a part 
 
232 THANKSGIVING SEBMONS. 
 
 of the divine appointment for our life; and 
 prudence in relation to these things is a Chris- 
 tian virtue. The sanctification of our labor 
 for the bread that perisheth is one of the pur- 
 poses of our holy religion, and the inculcation 
 of industry and prudence in earthly business 
 is a part of the duty of the Christian minister. 
 The Book of Proverbs tells us in no measured 
 terms how great a sinner the lazy man is ; nor 
 is the Book of Proverbs alone in its denunci- 
 ation of idleness. (See also 1 Pet. ii. 18, 19 ; 
 Eph. vi. 5-8 ; 1 Tim. v. 8 ; 2 Thess, iii. 7-12.) 
 But the principles set forth in our text in re- 
 lation to earthly business have also their appli- 
 cation to the spiritual life. 
 
 1. Human cooperation is necessary in 
 the beginning's of the religions life. If a 
 man would reap a rich spiritual harvest he 
 must plow. God does not save men, as a rule, 
 by sudden movements of his Spirit upon their 
 souls without their co5peration with him. 
 Spiritual plowing consists of self-examina- 
 tion in the light of God's Word, followed by 
 self-condemnation, the confession and renun- 
 ciation of sin, and the other exercises of re- 
 pentance. 
 
 2. Plowing" stands in the text as the 
 representative of all the labors of agri- 
 culture in preparation for the harvest. 
 
A BEGGAK IN HARVEST. 233 
 
 Human cooperation in the divine life is ne- 
 cessary all the way from the beginnings of 
 penitence np to the throne of glory. 
 
 3. The text teaches not only the ne- 
 cessity for diligence bnt for courage. The 
 sluggard was afraid of the cold. Courage is 
 one of the chief virtues. Cowardice is inex- 
 cusable in a soldier of Jesus Christ. Alas, 
 what little things daunt some professors of 
 religion ! A sneer will make a man resign all 
 his offices in the church and retire into sulky 
 indolence ! In the divine life " the struggle 
 for existence " is a stern reality ; and when the 
 roll of true heroes comes to be read it will be 
 seen that the heroes of faith have dared greater 
 dangers and shown more valor than those who 
 have marched to victory through a storm of 
 shot and shell. 
 
 4. The plowing must be done at the 
 right season. It would be of no use for the 
 sluggard to bring out his plow and yoke his 
 horses to it when other men are going to reap 
 their grain. Youth is the best time for plow- 
 ing. In any case there is no hope after death. 
 
 5. Note the sad picture — a beggar in 
 harvest. See, the harvest-wagons are com- 
 ing home ! The air is filled with the joyous 
 shouts of the harvesters ! When, lo ! our eyes 
 light on a miserable object, Mr. Sluggard! 
 
234 TilANKSCiJ VINCI SKKMUNS. 
 
 He would not woi-k, so now Ik^ Ix^^s ! JTe tvlll 
 have nollunfj in harvest. Wluui oilieivs shall re- 
 joice in plenty, ho will wail in eternal penury. 
 
 A TIIANKBOTVlNa DAY. 
 
 "Thou lio HJiid unto l.lioni, Oo your way, oat tlu> fat, and 
 driuk iho HW(»ot, aud Hcnid portiouH uuto tlu^m for whom 
 nothing is preparod : for tliis day is holy unto our liord." — 
 Noh. viii. 10. 
 
 Nehemiaii was brou<i^lit up a captive and a 
 servant; but luwlisplayed a kiiigliness worthy 
 of that royal house of David from whence he 
 sprang, lie never fought a battle, but he 
 displayed resolution, courage, and pi'udence. 
 Sti'ange abod(3S were the palaces of the l^ersian 
 kings to men of high heart and pure life. 
 These nionarchs W(^re treated as gods rather 
 than men. Only seven nobles coidd obtain 
 free admission to their presence ; their decrees 
 were irrevocable; their summons could bring 
 millions to march at tlieir comniaiid. Arta- 
 xerxes was on the throne, said to be the son of 
 a Jewish captive, probably of Esther, whose 
 heroism savcxl lu^r nation. He had a kindly 
 feeling toward the Jews. He saw his cup- 
 bearer Nehemiah looking sad and dejected; 
 he asked what ailed him. Nehemiah had 
 
A THANKSGIVING DAY. 235 
 
 heard a lamentable account: Jerusalem was 
 beset with enemies; the Bedouin robbers 
 swarmed, and gathered the crops as soon as 
 ripe; the mongrel race at Samaria had tried 
 to unite with the Jews ; Ezra had refused, fear- 
 ing the corruption ; they had consequently be- 
 come bitter foes of the Jews, maligning them 
 to each new king, and interfering with the res- 
 toration of the city ; they had persuaded the 
 king that if the walls were restored the Jews 
 would rebel; the high priest was a Moabite, 
 the temple service corrupted, the walls dis- 
 mantled, the tombs desecrated. Nehemiah 
 grieved, wept, and prayed over these calam- 
 ities for months. He replies to the king 
 (chap. ii. 3) : " Let the king live forever : why 
 should not my countenance be sad, when the 
 city," etc. The king listens graciously : " For 
 what dost thou make request?" Nehemiah 
 asks to be permitted to go to restore the city. 
 He obtains volunteers, surveys the city by 
 night because of his foes, and beholds a ter- 
 rible picture of desolation — a sight to make a 
 patriot's heart sink. His wisdom and strength 
 of purpose gave a new courage to an abject 
 people. Their work was accomplished. The 
 Sabbath month came, which was kept in mem- 
 ory of their escape into the wilderness, which 
 also served to commemorate the ingathering 
 
236 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 of the fruits of the earth. The much-neglected 
 Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated afresh 
 with great joy and festivity. 
 
 1. We learn that we should not be in- 
 different to God's gifts. 
 
 (a) We should remember that they come 
 from God. 
 
 Nehemiah bids them eat the fat and drink 
 the sweet. They are to use and enjoy. The 
 perfection of the soul will come when we ap- 
 preciate Giver and gift. God commends his 
 gifts by the way in which he gives them as 
 well as by their value. Some givers are so 
 patronizing, self-seeking, expectant, demand 
 such flattery, that a starving man would re- 
 fuse the bread of life at such hands. God be- 
 stows freely with good-will, demanding little 
 in return, seeking a recompense only in that 
 which ennobles us — gratitude which enlarges, 
 praise which glorifies, obedience which makes 
 righteous. God gives his Son, Spirit, riches 
 of his eternal Godhead. He gives as if he 
 were surveying his own inexhaustible trea- 
 sures rather than our needs — as if all the 
 splendors of the material universe were in- 
 sufficient for those who are joint heirs with 
 Christ. 
 
 (h) God wishes us to appreciate his gifts. 
 
 The way in which we treat them will test 
 
A THANKSGIVING DAY. 237 
 
 our religion as well as our taste, our common 
 sense as well as our devotion. Sensual men 
 abuse them ; ungrateful men take them as only 
 a small instalment of their due. The forget- 
 ful and insensible man takes all as a matter 
 of course. He builds a pyramid to his own 
 self-conceit, and inters God's mercies therein. 
 The ascetic slights the gifts for the sake of the 
 Giver, so he says. He acts as though this 
 earth were made, adorned, and preserved by 
 Satan; as though God had never made an 
 Eden, never had promised a Paradise with full- 
 ness of joy. But Christians love the Giver ; 
 therefore all his gifts are golden, and bear his 
 superscription. Though Christianity is spiri- 
 tual in aim, it does not despise material good. 
 Why should it? Though it wins its highest 
 trophies in the soul it strives mightily to make 
 the body also a temple of the Holy Ghost. 
 The body as well as the soul is to be made 
 like Christ. Christianity should smile on all 
 scenes of happiness and contentment. If it 
 has its tears in repentance it has also the new 
 life, and love and joy. It has its cross, but 
 also its opened sepulcher and ascension; its 
 stern forerunner, John the Baptist, but also 
 its Christ gracing a wedding, feasting with his 
 disciples, inviting the slanders of the envious 
 by his sociality. 
 
238 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 (c) God means us to take them as a reward 
 for toil. 
 
 Shall a man serve Grod for naught 1 Every- 
 thing on earth, in heaven, among all creatures, 
 proclaims he shall not. God not only pays in 
 stern righteousness for all our efforts, but lets 
 grace abound. The deserving of all the good 
 God bestows is an impossibility even for un- 
 f alien angels. If men toil in vain it is not in 
 harmony with the creative plan. Occasional 
 failure proves not that labor is designed to 
 fail. God is the active cause of success. Sin 
 brings failure. Sin not only destroys, but 
 prevents much good. Rarely do men fish all 
 night and catch nothing ; and, if they do, the 
 Lord appears in the morning, and their very 
 nets break. 
 
 When we enter the higher regions of the 
 soul, where God alone can find the currency 
 of heaven with which to pay, lack of recom- 
 pense is an impossibility. 
 
 If all good came without effort, man would 
 soon become a mere brute, like Nebuchadnez- 
 zar. If no recompense came, man would be 
 like the Israelites in the days of Deborah, when 
 the inhabitants of villages ceased because 
 Philistines reaped their fields. Not for noth- 
 ing will you toil up steep hills of difficulty. 
 The prospect will more than repay the pain. 
 
A THANKSGIVING DAY. 239 
 
 Nebo will be your reward. Not for nothing 
 shall you have the storm, the thunder's roar, 
 lightning's flash. You shall see a sea of glass 
 glittering like amethyst beneath the cloudless 
 sky of eternity. The isles of the Blessed West, 
 stately with palm, shall be the land ahead. 
 Not for nothing will scoff, jeer of witless per- 
 secutor, trouble you, or strive to hold you up 
 to execration. Soon the streets of the city of 
 the great King shall ring with that which shall 
 be done unto that man whom the King de- 
 lighteth to honor. 
 
 (d) Grod takes pleasure in the delight of his 
 people. 
 
 The sculptor takes pleasure in the creation 
 of his genius, when the ordinary statue seems 
 to breathe and speak ; but when by his skill he 
 impersonates a great statesman or reformer, 
 so that through that rigid marble he touches a 
 thousand hearts with generous impulses, with 
 self-sacrifice and lofty aspiration, he rejoices 
 more : even so, when God sees material boun- 
 ties unloose our tongues with praise, make our 
 hearts glow with gratitude, then he attains his 
 end and rejoices therein. He never limits our 
 joy by sorrow, except it lead to a higher joy. 
 He never flings a shadow across our path but 
 what he designs it to quicken our pursuit of 
 that eternal substance from which it falls. 
 
240 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 Why should God create in vain ! Why should 
 he not be satisfied with his works 1 Has he 
 not a right to make the earth a high altar, and 
 man his priest ? Nature cannot pay her full 
 revenue of praise until man assists. 
 
 We may have different views of some of 
 God's ways, "footsteps not known" even to 
 keen eyes of angels ; but we cannot doubt he 
 intends to make us happy. God smiles afresh 
 when contentment, cheerfulness, gladness go 
 forth to triumph. Wound not the heart of 
 your Heavenly Father by base ingratitude. 
 As God consults our highest interests in the 
 gifts, let us consult his glory in their use ; as 
 he puts his love into his bounties, let us strive 
 to make our gratitude last as long as his mercy. 
 Strive to distinguish between levity and cheer- 
 fulness, for levity may be the production of 
 folly and vice ; cheerfulness is the natural off- 
 spring of wisdom and virtue. 
 
 2, Out of our prosperity we should 
 bless others. 
 
 (a) This is Godlike. 
 
 " Send a portion unto him for whom noth- 
 ing is prepared." 
 
 How God delights to communicate ! Every 
 star which glitters, every mind which thinks, 
 every angel which worships, yea, even the 
 fallen angels, declare how he delighted to go 
 
A THANKSGIVING DAY. 241 
 
 out of himself. All the laws of nature are 
 almoners of his bounty. If God did not de- 
 light to give, creation could never have been, 
 and the very mansions of heaven must soon 
 totter and fall. If he be churlish and miserly, 
 we must change the name of God. Goodness 
 is the most active of all virtues. Like fabled 
 Time, it has wings upon its feet. God's readi- 
 ness to bless outspeeds our needs. 
 
 It degrades men to withhold good. Even 
 the granite quartz yields the gold to the crush- 
 ing-instrument. But, alas ! some hearts are 
 harder than granite. Only universal goodness 
 could be commensurate with God's own im- 
 mensity. 
 
 " Great minds, like Heaven, are pleased in doing good, 
 Though the ungrateful subjects of their favors are barren in 
 return." 
 
 It requires no revelation from heaven to tell 
 us that sorrows abound in this world. If we 
 were invaded by a cruel enemy we must know 
 that many would be exposed to attacks, sur- 
 prisals, ambushes, requisitions. There must 
 be many sufferers. If a battle rage we ought 
 not to partake of delicious fruit in our plea- 
 sant bowers, while, just beyond, our country- 
 men are clutching the crimsoned grass in dy- 
 ing agony. We know the world is not in a 
 
242 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 state of profound peace and iiniversal pros- 
 perity. It has been invaded by cruel, untir- 
 ing foes ; disease, making weak weaker, poor 
 poorer, the helpless more despairing; vice, 
 apples of Sodom, Dead Sea fruit; bereave- 
 ment, shattering the pillar which supports the 
 family, cutting off income. Such considera- 
 tions should pierce our consciences as arrows 
 of the Lord ; they should burden our hearts. 
 We ought not to feast within drawn blinds, 
 and forget the shivering and starving groping 
 helplessly in the dark outside. We must not, 
 even for sake of being early at a convention, 
 pass rapidly on the other side, oblivious of the 
 wounded one who has " fallen among thieves." 
 When you have weathered commercial crises 
 and find credit unimpaired, do not forget those 
 who are still on broken spars battling with the 
 waves. 
 
 " Oh, there is need that on men's hearts should fall 
 A spirit that can sympathize with all." 
 
 (b) We should strive to cultivate sympathy. 
 
 It ought to be impossible that in a Christian 
 land honest worth or hopeless want should 
 dwell unaided by our care and sympathy. 
 Our poor-law system is honoring to Chris- 
 tianity, which made it possible, but it is too 
 narrow for that universal spirit of benevolence 
 
A THANKSGIVING DAY. 243 
 
 which Christianity strives to impart. Pene- 
 trative though it is, it cannot ascertain many 
 secret burdens crushing the most sensitive. It 
 cannot be full of sympathy. It may encourage 
 indolence ; it does not go in search of misery 
 — it has enough brought to its office. Poor- 
 laws were never designed to fulfil all our duty 
 to our neighbor. They are much more than 
 the priest and Levite who passed by on the 
 other side, but much less than the good Sa- 
 maritan. Poor-laws are too much like auto- 
 matic machines which supply sweetmeats, but 
 there is no feeling. The relieving officer, who 
 gets the " blessing of them that are ready to 
 perish," is likely to get censure of those whose 
 " eyes stand out with fatness." 
 
 Christian benevolence has heart as well as 
 head. Talking about the golden age will not 
 bring it. Christianity will no longer multiply 
 the loaves by miracle, save by the miracle of 
 God's gracious providence. The plenty is put 
 into our homes to carry it to others. 
 
 3. True holiness is not incompatible 
 with innocent enjoyment. 
 
 God is holy as well as happy ; but he is holy 
 first. God looks on what he has made and pro- 
 nounces it to be good. What right have we 
 to reverse Heaven's high verdict 1 Is not this 
 as bad as transforming it into a curse ? The 
 
244 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 day was holy on being set aside. Bnt the 
 mere formal setting aside, the describing a 
 circle more or less limited within the sweep of 
 time, the cutting an infinitesimal arc off the 
 circle of eternity, cannot make it holy. Chris- 
 tianity has been injured by its fast-days, 
 its whips, flagellations, and heavy penances. 
 When these were rife Christianity was most 
 corrupt. We must put holiness in the princi- 
 ple rather than in the theory. We must teach, 
 not that there is one holy temple in Zion, but 
 that every Christian may become a temple; 
 that every day and hour may be a time for 
 holy living. To do everything unto is equiv- 
 alent to doing everything for the Lord. When 
 we throw the spirit of holy angels into the 
 duty of life we make the secular spiritual, and 
 the whole earth a temple overflowing with the 
 light and glory of God. Matter in itseK can- 
 not be sinful. Impurity is not associated 
 with each gift and bounty of a material kind. 
 Health need not lead to sin, nor prosperity to 
 rebellion. The streams of heaven are pure as 
 well as joyous. Let all matter be associated 
 with sin, then all material emblems of heaven 
 are illusive. Yes, the fontal spring was pure, 
 but ere it flowed far an enemy cast in mire and 
 dirt. The impurity comes in the dethronement 
 of the higher matter. Holiness is not a mere 
 
THE CUP OF SALVATION. 245 
 
 crotchet, but a principle far-reaching as God's 
 omnipresence, penetrative as his omniscience. 
 The holiest men have had fullest foretastes of 
 heaven. Through holiness the highest spiri- 
 tual joy will flow. " We will worship toward 
 thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy 
 loving-kindness and for thy truth." 
 
 THE CUP OF SALVATION. 
 
 " What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits to- 
 ward me ? 
 
 *' I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of 
 the Lord."— Ps. cxvi. 12, 13. 
 
 We have here a question and its answer ; a 
 question we all ought to ask and an answer 
 we all ought to give. 
 
 Look at the question — ^have we ever asked 
 it ! Have we tried to think about the Lord's 
 benefits! Have we in some quiet hour at- 
 tempted to count over the numberless mercies 
 which abound in our lives ? 
 
 Let us put the matter to ourselves in some 
 practical way. Let us go for a little time to 
 the waiting-room or the wards of some great 
 hospital and see the large numbers of our fel- 
 low-creatures who come with their heavy phys- 
 ical burdens that they may obtain the advice 
 
246 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 and relief wliich science can give. Look at the 
 crippled limbs, the white, sunken, wasted faces, 
 the helplessness, the suffering, the want. If 
 we spent a few hours thus should we not be 
 thankful indeed for our own abounding health, 
 our sound limbs, our freedom from weakness 
 and pain, our large capacity for work and en- 
 joyment 1 Should we not ask some such ques- 
 tion as the psalmist's : " What shall I render 
 unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me ? " 
 
 Or we might go through a lunatic asylum 
 and see hundreds of men and women mentally 
 diseased, their minds filled with delusions 
 which make their lives useless and wretched 
 to themselves and oftentimes dangerous to so- 
 ciety. What more fearful calamity can over- 
 take a man than to have reason dethroned and 
 some childish or animal impulse assuming the 
 government of the life 1 Would not a sad sight 
 like that fill us with thankfulness for our own 
 soundness of mind, our power to think and 
 learn more and more of the great truths and 
 facts with which men have to deal! Should 
 we not ask ourselves the psalmist's question : 
 How can we ever repay God for all his good- 
 ness? 
 
 We might try to measure the misery linked 
 to the rags, the hunger and the dirt, and the 
 unceasing pain of daily struggle for the barest 
 
THE CUP OF SALVATION. 247 
 
 maintenance of life. Then, as we went back to 
 our own comfortable homes, with their order, 
 plenty, and moderate adornment, should we 
 not think of the psalmist's problem 1 Should 
 we not ask : What thank-offering can be made 
 to God for his abounding mercy ? 
 
 Look steadily at the picture of the fearful 
 sufferings of men and women and little chil- 
 dren for want of bread. Aye, and look at the 
 terrible mortality too! Then turn to the 
 bountiful provision which God has made for 
 us. See the abundant harvest which is once 
 more gathered in. Measure up, if you can, 
 the varied fruits of the earth which are safely 
 housed in our garners for the sustenance and 
 comfort of man's life. The dark story of the 
 famine will help us to estimate rightly the 
 greatness of common mercies — those gifts 
 which are bestowed upon us in such plenty 
 that too often we use them without thought 
 and without thankfulness. 
 
 The purpose of our annual Thanksgiv- 
 ing is to bring us face to face with the 
 fact that all the products of nature are the 
 gift of God, and to teach us the trust and 
 the thankfulness witli which we should 
 receive and use them all. When we see 
 the harvest-fields in their autumnal beauty, 
 and feel that God has once more prepared a 
 
248 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 table for us in the wilderness, we should ask, 
 like the psalmist ; " What shall I render unto 
 the Lord for all his benefits toward me I " 
 
 These common mercies we have thought of 
 are great, but they are the least portion of the 
 benefits on which the psalmist meditated. As 
 we read the psalm we see that the main mercies 
 around which his mind was lingering were 
 spiritual ones, those precious gifts of grace 
 and mercy which were linked to the covenant. 
 He may have been brought into contact with 
 some of the debasing forms of the idolatry of 
 the age. He may have seen the results of a 
 false worship on the mental and moral state 
 of a nation, and then was filled with thankful- 
 ness at the mercy vouchsafed to Israel. They 
 were blessed with "the courts of the Lord's 
 house in the midst " of them. In those courts 
 the faithful soul could enter into communion 
 with Grod, and find grace and strength for the 
 life in every time of need. His own inner life 
 was a sufficient witness of this. He had been 
 in the depths. Pain and sorrow and darkness 
 had laid hold of him. In answer to his cry he 
 had not only found deliverance, but the very 
 trial itself had been blessed to his spiritual 
 growth. 
 
 Thoughts such as these are far more full of 
 meaning to us than they could have been to 
 
THE CUP OF SALVATION. 249 
 
 the psalmist. The Lord's benefits ! What a 
 flood of light is cast on the words by the cross 
 and resurrection of the Saviour ! God's own 
 Son taking human flesh, dying for our sins, 
 rising again for our justification, sending the 
 Divine Spirit down upon his believing people ! 
 How vast and how abiding is the grace en- 
 shrined in such familiar facts as these! If 
 the psalmist, in passing God's benefits in re- 
 view, felt that they surpassed infinitely not 
 only his desert but also his power of adequate 
 acknowledgment, what ought our thankfulness 
 to be at the greater mercy and the clearer light 
 vouchsafed to us ! 
 
 Have we ever really thought about these 
 things I Have we tried in any way to mea- 
 sure our boundless spiritual opportunities and 
 to estimate the preciousness of the golden 
 chain of love and goodness with which, both 
 in temporal and spiritual things, God has en- 
 circled our life? Have we ever asked what 
 duty these things place upon us ? 
 
 " What shall I render unto the Lord for all 
 his benefits toward me ! " 
 
 This is the question of a grateful heart, a 
 heart which would like to make some return 
 to God if it were possible to do so. A right 
 and noble desire — would that it dwelt in us 
 all! 
 
250 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 What answer can we give to the question ? 
 God bestows so many blessings upon us that, 
 in one sense of the word, we can return abso- 
 lutely nothing to him for his gifts. The psalm- 
 ist's words imply this: I can bring thee no 
 great gift, I can lay no priceless offering at 
 thy feet, I have nothing which is not already 
 thine own, for all has come from thee — I will 
 take the cup of salvation. I will accept thy 
 bounteous mercy with a thankful heart. I 
 will seek to link all my life to thee. 
 
 This thought helps us to meet a very com- 
 mon temptation. A man may realize some- 
 thing of the goodness of God. He may say to 
 himself : " Oh, if I had very large means like 
 some men, how much I would try to do in re- 
 turn ! I would build a stately cathedral for 
 the service of God, a noble house of prayer for 
 all time. I would endow a hospital to minis- 
 ter to human suffering. I would put the high- 
 est education within the reach of the poorest 
 man. But I have so little income, it scarcely 
 overlaps my own pressing wants." Then, be- 
 cause he cannot do great things, he sinks back 
 and does nothing at all. He would reform an 
 empire, but does not order his own house. He 
 dreams of cleansing a city, but never sweeps 
 before his own door. The psalmist teaches us 
 the true lesson, and shows us what we may all 
 
THE CUP OF SALVATION. 251 
 
 do. We may give ourselves first of all, and 
 then the avenues of service will open out be- 
 fore us according to His will. " I will take the 
 cup of salvation." Is it not saying, in other 
 words, " God shall be my God, and I will be 
 his servant"? 
 
 " I will take the cup of salvation." 
 
 How are we to understand the figure ? The 
 word cup is often used in Holy Scripture to 
 represent the portion allotted to man, whether 
 of prosperity or adversity ; just as the Arabs 
 speak of the cup of love and the cup of death. 
 (See, as examples of this, Ps. xi. 6, xvi. 5, 
 xxiii. 5.) So the words of the text would mean : 
 " I will accept with thankfulness and worship 
 what God may see fit to send me as my lifers 
 portion." 
 
 To enter into the lesson of the words we 
 may take three pictures : 
 
 1. That so familiar to us in the Twenty- 
 third Psalm. A human soul pondering over 
 the past life with all its alternations of light 
 and shade, of joy and sorrow. He scans the 
 winding pathway by which he has been led 
 out of the bare desert into the green pastures 
 and beside the still waters. In strife and in 
 darkness the protecting hand had never been 
 withdrawn. All his wants had been supplied. 
 His table had been prepared even in the pres- 
 
252 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 ence of his enemies. He saw tliat all his life 
 had abounded with blessing. With thankful 
 heart he says to himself and to the world, " My 
 cup runneth over." My lot has been always 
 blessed by the unfailing goodness of God. 
 
 2. A second picture. The Christ, in his 
 great agony in the garden, bending low under 
 the shadow of the aged olive-trees, while the 
 Passover moon was lighting up the rough 
 mountain side with its brightness. How aw- 
 ful a burden bowed him down when his sweat 
 was as great drops of blood falling down to 
 the ground! His anguish of body and soul 
 was as a cup of unspeakable bitterness he had 
 to drink. Even he pleaded, " If it be possible, 
 let this cup pass from me." And yet, withal, 
 there was the prayer so sublime in its self-for- 
 getfulness : " Not my will, but thine, be done." 
 How complete was his submission to God, and 
 how unfaltering his devotion to the great work 
 for which he came ! 
 
 3. A third picture. The father of the 
 family, at the Passover, as the master of the 
 feast, took a cup of wine into his hand and 
 solemnly blessed God for it and for the mercy 
 which was then acknowledged. He then gave 
 it to all the guests, and each one drank of it in 
 turn. Many have thought that this is what 
 the psalmist refers to in the text. It was the 
 
THE CUP OF SALVATION. 253 
 
 custom of the feast in our Lord's time, but 
 there is no evidence of the existence of the 
 custom at the celebration of the Passover in 
 the Old Testament, and the time of its intro- 
 duction may be open to question. Still the 
 idea is in the words, whether the psalmist was 
 referring to any such particular custom or no. 
 In taking the cup they signified their accep- 
 tance of God's offered mercy— the fruits of the 
 great deliverance of Israel from their bondage 
 — and while accepting the mercy they declared 
 their allegiance to the Grod of their fathers. 
 "I will take the cup of salvation, and call 
 upon the name of the Lord." Jehovah shall 
 be my God; I will be his faithful servant. 
 
 Do we think over the manifold gifts of God : 
 the temporal gifts— the food we eat, the rai- 
 ment we wear, the comforts ever about us; 
 the spiritual gifts which he continues to oifer 
 us with such patient love? Does each one 
 say : " I will take the cup of salvation : what 
 God offers I will not refuse"? For the best 
 recompense we can make is thankfully to ac- 
 cept and rightly to use his great and precious 
 gifts. 
 
 Many cups may be offered us as we go 
 through life. We may for the moment be 
 dazzled by the gemmed and sparkling cup of 
 earthly pleasure, or the cup of worldly aims 
 
254 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 and ambitions. Let us put them aside. Let 
 each say, " I will take the cup of salvation." 
 I will accept and use all God's offered mercy. 
 The chalice of redeeming love shall be my 
 chiefest treasure. I will take it — I will seek 
 to be Grod's true child, the grateful son of so 
 loving a Father. I will endeavor in all things 
 to do his will, hoping to be guided ever by his 
 grace and shielded ever by his protecting care. 
 "I will call upon the name of the Lord" 
 openly, constantly, in my loftiest thanksgiv- 
 ings as well as in my sorest need; in my 
 health and strength as well as in my pain and 
 sickness : thus his mercy and my trusting ser- 
 vice shall bind me to his throne by links which 
 neither life nor death shall break asunder. 
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 
 
 BY THE REV. J. ROBINSON GREGORY. 
 Mark iv. 1-20. 
 
 Of all the parables, that of the Sower deals 
 most directly with the preacher's and teacher's 
 work. Our Lord, too, not only interpreted the 
 parable himself, but set it as a kind of model 
 for the interpretation of all parables (verse 13). 
 
THE PAKABLE OF THE SOWEK. 255 
 
 Very likely while Jesus was speaking he saw 
 a sower casting his seed upon the earth. It is 
 quite conceivable that all the different sorts of 
 ground might be found within a comparatively 
 small space. A footpath runs through the field, 
 beaten hard by the continual tread of travelers. 
 Near it the rock rises close to the surface, but 
 it is still completely covered with soil. Here, 
 again, is a portion of the field which has not 
 been cleaned properly; the thorn-roots have 
 not been stubbed up — their heads already ap- 
 pear above the earth. And here is a piece 
 of good ground, naturally rich, and cultivated 
 with skill and diligence. One could almost 
 tell the fate of the seed beforehand. Some fell 
 on the unplowed and uninclosed footpath over 
 which every one had a right of way. It could 
 not sink below the surface, and the eager birds, 
 ever on the outlook for the good grain, seized 
 it immediately. Some fell on the rocky ground. 
 The thin coating of soil held it, but the stone 
 bed would not permit it to be more than just 
 covered. The earth there was all the warmer 
 because the rock radiated the heat. Like 
 Jonah's gourd, the seed sprang up in a night, 
 the warmth causing it to germinate with un- 
 natural rapidity. But the thin, hot earth 
 lacked moisture, and when the fierce sun beat 
 upon the too hasty plant it had no sources 
 
256 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 whence to draw its supplies, and, not on the 
 instant, but gradually, it ivithered aivay. For 
 a little while it endured the scorching^ but it 
 speedily perished. Some fell among thorns, 
 and the thorns and it grew up together (see 
 Luke viii. 7), and the thorns choked it, deprived 
 it of light and air and room, and it became un- 
 fruitful. Its stalk still stood, but its ears were 
 like the devouring ears in Pharaoh's dream. 
 But some fell upon good ground. Here, where 
 the soil was in the condition in which it ought 
 to be, where there was nourishment which the 
 living seed could appropriate and assimilate, 
 it grew ; and, as its progress was not checked 
 by illegitimate hindrances, it yielded fruit. 
 All the good was not equally rich or equally 
 well cultivated, had not equal benefit of air 
 and sunlight, so that the final yield was un- 
 equal. But in each case fruit was brought 
 forth to perfection. The largeness of the in- 
 crease need not surprise us. It was good seed 
 that the husbandman sowed. The average 
 number of grains in an ear of English wheat 
 is forty-one, in an ear of Heshbon wheat 
 eighty-four. 
 
 The authoritative interpretation informs us 
 that the Sower is Christ himself. But just as 
 there are under-shepherds while he is the Chief 
 Shepherd, so there are under-sowers. Every 
 
THE PAEABLE OF THE SOWER. 257 
 
 preacher and teacher, every faithful Christian, 
 is such an under-sower. The seed is the Word 
 — of Grod (Luke viii. 12), of the kingdom (Matt, 
 xiii. 19). It is given by God ; it proclaims the 
 kingdom, both the external kingdom of heaven 
 and the internal — righteousness and peace and 
 joy in the Holy Ghost. The Word is sown — 
 preached, i.e., declared in any way so as to 
 reach the soul by the ear or the eye. Some 
 men's hearts are like a public footpath. There 
 is no guard to them. Thoughts rush in, over, 
 and through them, unexamined and uncon- 
 sidered. Such a man heareth the Word, and 
 under standetJi it not (Matt. xiii. 19) ; from sheer 
 heedlessness does not perceive its real meaning 
 and power (see 1 Cor. ii. 14) ; does not even 
 think about it long enough or earnestly enough 
 for it to attach itself in the slightest degree to 
 his real self. Nevertheless, if the seed were 
 left in his heart it might take root even there ; 
 afflictions might plow it and soften the hard 
 soil. Lest it should be so, lest some grain 
 might have fallen upon a spot where it could 
 take root, Satan comethj by agents numerous 
 as the fowls of the heaven, using " trifles light 
 as air," filling the heart with other thoughts, 
 not necessarily harmful intrinsically, but only 
 as they render the Word forgotten, and taketh 
 away that which hath been sown in the heart. 
 
258 THANKSGIVING SEBMONS. 
 
 Other hearers are all impulse and emotion. 
 They feel quickly and keenly, but not strongly. 
 To them the Word has a pleasant sound ; they 
 notice only its promises ; and they do not sus- 
 pect their own shallowness. Such a hearer 
 receives the Word tvith joy and straightway. 
 Not only is there absence of struggle, but also 
 absence of sorrow. His acceptance of reli- 
 gion is sincere as far as it goes, but it has not 
 touched the deeper fibers of the being. Trih- 
 ulatiofij affliction, temptation, persecution — any 
 one of these tries or assails him, and, with 
 scarce an effort to keep his feet, immediately 
 he stumbles and falls. This kind of hearer 
 often swells the roll of converts at mission ser- 
 vices. He is accountable, probably, for the 
 large number of those who yearly leave our 
 churches. We may do our best to test them, 
 to break up the underlying rock, but we may 
 not reject them peremptorily, even if we could 
 discern them, for they have, for the time, the 
 seed of the kingdom in their hearts. 
 
 The third class of hearers have the seed 
 rooted in themselves. They go forth (Luke viii. 
 14) from the place of hearing to their house- 
 holds, their business, their pleasures. Worldly 
 cares not cast upon God; the deceitfulness of 
 riches — the glitter of gold, of which they think 
 they will make good use ; the pleasures of this 
 
THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER. 259 
 
 life^ even physical passions and appetites un- 
 subdued ; lusts of other tilings — desire for godli- 
 ness mingled with desires for something else as 
 well ; affections not set ivholly upon the Lord, 
 contend with the living Word in the heart, and 
 the naturally productive Word, the real grace 
 of Grod, a measure of which has been received, 
 hecometh wholly unfruitful, or at the best bring- 
 eth no fruit to perfection. (Luke viii. 14.) The 
 Christian life ends in failure, while perhaps 
 the profession of it continues. Of course, be- 
 coming unfruitful is a process which, thank 
 God ! may be arrested. The evil dispositions 
 may be weakened and destroyed. 
 
 From the three ways of losing, wasting, or 
 spoiling the seed, let us turn to the one way of 
 keeping and using it. The seed on the way- 
 side did not even spring up ; that on the rocky 
 ground sprang up, but did not take real root ; 
 that among thorns sprang up, took real root, 
 but did not ripen. The seed sown on the good 
 ground takes true and deep root, springs up, 
 ripens, and yields fruit — to perfection. This 
 series of stages is clearly marked in the para- 
 ble : receivethj retaineth (accept R. V.) — in con- 
 trast to the wayside ; hringeth forth fruit — in 
 contrast to the concealed rock; tvith patience 
 (Luke viii. 15) — in contrast to the thorn-bear- 
 ing soil. All this only the honest and good 
 
260 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 heart accomplishes: honest, in that it neither 
 deceives nor will be deceived ; good, in that it 
 nourishes the seed and will not nourish thorns 
 and weeds. 
 
 To the preacher a caution against pressing 
 the parable unduly to his own advantage is 
 necessary. No shadow of blame can attach to 
 the Sower; no possible defect can inhere in 
 his seed. But human sowers may fill their 
 hands with other seed than this gospel of the 
 kingdom, the incorruptible "Word of Grod ; may 
 mix the worthless or harmful with the precious ; 
 and may cast their seed carelessly or unwisely. 
 Still the responsibility of the hearer is not one 
 whit lessened. Let us sow broadcast, but let 
 us take earnest heed as to the manner of the 
 sowing and the quality of our grain. 
 
 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear, is more 
 than a call for attention or an intimation of 
 the importance of the subject. It is an appeal 
 to the individual to receive that which is cer- 
 tain to be rejected by the crowd. 
 
 GEOWTH AND INCREASE. 
 
 " And the Word of God grew and multiplied." — ^Acts xii. 24. 
 
 The chapter relates how "Herod the king 
 stretched out his hand to vex certain of the 
 
GROWTH AND INCREASE. 261 
 
 church " ; how he killed James with the sword ; 
 how he imprisoned Peter; how instant and 
 earnest prayer ascended to God from the 
 church for him ; how Peter was delivered mi- 
 raculously; how Herod expired in exquisite 
 agony ; and how " the Word of God grew and 
 multiplied." The persecutor who would have 
 destroyed it perished — the gospel spread only 
 the more rapidly. 
 
 It would be easily possible to draw a contrast 
 between that age and the present day. "We 
 might speak of the absence of persecution, and 
 a corresponding absence of swift and marked 
 success. Such a contrast must not be pressed 
 too strongly. There is still some persecution, 
 and there is thankworthy success. Neverthe- 
 less the historian of the church of to-day would 
 scarcely choose our text as the motto for his 
 chapter or book. And the contrast, partial 
 though it be, carries its own lessons. 
 
 I. The wordings of our text is sugrges- 
 tive : " Grew and multiplied." The meta- 
 phor almost explains itself. The one seed 
 dropped into the earth shoots upward, the 
 blade that rises higher and higher then brings 
 forth the ear, and at length the full corn in 
 the ear. Thus the one grain has become many 
 grains — has grown and multiplied. Growth 
 implies life. Without life it is utterly impos- 
 
262 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 sible to produce growth. Other modes of in- 
 crease you may employ — accumulation, aggre- 
 gation, inflation — but not this. 
 
 Another expression should be noticed. It is 
 not said that the church achieved great con- 
 quests over her enemies and enlarged her bor- 
 ders; that the preaching of the apostles re- 
 sulted in numerous conversions; that the 
 labors of well-advertised and belauded evan- 
 gelists added largely to the membership of the 
 church; but that the Word of God grew and 
 multiplied. Attention is diverted from the 
 human instruments to the message they de- 
 livered. 
 
 Hence we gather that the gospel spreads by 
 its own inherent vitality, not by human might 
 or energy. Like its divine Author, it has life 
 in itseK. This is the reason why, in the New 
 Testament, it is compared so frequently to 
 seed. Even when a figure is used which does 
 not imply actual life active energy is assumed 
 — e.g., the leaven hid in three measures of 
 meal. The living force may lie dormant in 
 the seed for many years. Though hidden, it 
 is not destroyed. And the truths of the gos- 
 pel lodged in the human heart may long seem 
 to be uninfluential, and yet at last develop and 
 bring forth abundant fruit. 
 
 But however intense may be the inherent 
 
GEOWTH AND INCKEASE. 263 
 
 vitality of the seed, it requires, first, sowing ; 
 second, suitable soil. 
 
 1. Sowing. Every Christian should be a 
 sower. In the persecution that arose about 
 Stephen those that were scattered " went 
 everywhere preaching the Word" — not only 
 apostles and deacons, but all who believed in 
 Christ. Of course ministers of the gospel are 
 specially responsible for this sowing, but it 
 may not be left wholly to them ; and there are 
 other modes of sowing than preaching, as the 
 term is now understood. (Compare Mark v. 
 18-20.) 
 
 2. Suitable soil. The parable of the Sower 
 makes the success or failure of the good seed 
 entirely dependent upon the quality of the 
 ground into which it is cast. The interpreta- 
 tion of the parable shows that the gospel has 
 its designed effect upon men only when it is 
 received by honest and good hearts. But 
 hearts naturally sinful can be rendered honest 
 and good only by the prevenient influence of 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Hence we may estimate the spheres of our 
 helplessness, our power, our responsibility, 
 with respect to the spread of the kingdom of 
 God. We must sow ; we must see to it that it 
 is good seed that we sow ; but we cannot insure 
 results. 
 
264 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 II. We may not, however, reg^ard the 
 seed once sown with indifference, as 
 
 though our connection with it ceased when it 
 had left our hands. The husbandman watches 
 his seed eagerly, and he prays to God concern- 
 ing it. The Word of God grew and multiplied 
 after instant and earnest prayer had been 
 offered by the church. In times of spiritual 
 dearth and destitution we can cry, "Help, 
 Lord : for the godly man ceaseth ; for the faith- 
 ful fail from among the children of men." 
 (Ps. xii. 1.) We can ever accept the divine 
 challenge, "Bring ye all the tithe into the 
 storehouse, that there may be meat in mine 
 house, and prove me now herewith, saith the 
 Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the win- 
 dows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, 
 that there shall not be room enough to receive 
 it." (Mai. iii. 10.) The church can present to 
 the Lord of the harvest the full tithe of faith, 
 hope, effort, gift, prayer. And the God of 
 both nature and grace will fulfil his promise : 
 "I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, 
 and he shall not destroy the fruits of your 
 ground ; neither shall your vine cast her fruit 
 before the time in the field, saith the Lord of 
 hosts." The seed shall be protected from its 
 many foes, safe-guarded against the numerous 
 dangers that beset it ; and the fostering influ- 
 
WEATHER-WISE. 265 
 
 ences of beneficent winds and sun and rain 
 shall be granted to it. There is this analogy 
 between the operations of the agriculturist and 
 the labors of the Christian preacher, that both 
 depend for ultimate success upon forces be- 
 yond their own control ; both necessarily run 
 some hazard of failure and waste of toil and 
 material ; but both can rely upon the pledged 
 faithfulness of Grod that the labor and expen- 
 diture shall not be altogether vain. Both may 
 look for an abundant return. 
 
 WEATHEE-WISE. 
 
 " He that observeth the wind shall not sow ; and he that 
 regardeth the clouds shall not reap." — Eccles. xi. 4. 
 
 Work was once the recreation of Paradise ; 
 it is now the stern necessity of daily life. It 
 is the tax we pay for life. Out of labor spring 
 comfort and enjoyment. Secular duties need 
 not be distinct from piety. A religious motive 
 and end may secure the divine blessing. No 
 man has a charter to be idle. Men of the most 
 ample estates are stewards, and should be ser- 
 vants of God. Wealth, exempt from daily 
 toil, opens a thousand doors of usefulness. 
 He who, through past diligence and prudence, 
 
266 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 has reaped a competency may produce the 
 most enduring fruits even in old age. 
 
 1. The text exhibits the indolent and 
 undecided. The Wise Man represents a hus- 
 bandman intending to sow his seed; but the 
 wind is too fierce or gustful, and he fears the 
 seed will not be uniformly scattered, or it will 
 be mixed with other kinds or carried over into 
 his neighbor's fields. He waits for better 
 atmospheric symptoms, and seed-time passes 
 away. The same truth is taught by the 
 clouds. The husbandman should trust the 
 promise, "While the earth remaineth, seed- 
 time and harvest shall not fail ; " even so the 
 spiritual husbandman needs faith in the seed 
 of the kingdom, the life-giving power of the 
 gospel, the potencies of the Holy Spirit, etc. 
 
 (a) Inaction may spring from indolence. 
 What can be more unworthy of man than to 
 bury himself alive in indolence ? An idle man 
 is dead while he liveth, and has not received 
 the honors of decent interment. To have 
 powers and not to use them is robbing Grod 
 and man ; to use them amiss is rebellion against 
 the King of kings. The idle man has virtually 
 outlawed himself. Private diligence is a pub- 
 lic good, for the careful management of every 
 man's estate is advantageous to the whole. 
 
 Spiritual idleness prevails. There is 
 
WEATHEE-WISE. 267 
 
 little room to complain of idleness in temporal 
 things. How many diligent in business are at 
 ease in Zion ! How many flourishing in busi- 
 ness are in spiritual bankruptcy! We see 
 their growing wealth, adding house to house, 
 when, in " their growing riches," their heart is 
 not in their religion. Some act as though the 
 body and soul were all hearing ; as if religion 
 dwelt alone in the temple, or had to be used 
 only on the Sabbath. St. Jerome says, " The 
 husbandman may pray and praise the Lord, 
 and sing halleluiah at the plow." St. Augus- 
 tine says, " One prayer of an obedient man 
 who walketh in his calling according to rules 
 shall sooner be heard of Grod than ten thousand 
 from him who maketh his diligence to keep 
 one commandment a privilege and warrant to 
 break the rest." Occupations vary : some are 
 so mechanical that they may admit of consec- 
 utive thought on religious subjects; others, 
 e.g., man at wheel, switchman at signal, artist 
 at portrait, demand constant attention. But 
 all can be done unto the Lord. The more a 
 business takes us into a wilderness of evils 
 the more should we redeem each supernumer- 
 ary moment for the Lord. 
 
 (h) The words may mean excessive pru- 
 dence. The text has a connection with the 
 first and second verses : " Cast thy bread," etc. ; 
 
268 THANKSGWING SERMONS. 
 
 *^ Give a portion to seven, and also to eight." 
 That is, never cease giving if you have the 
 means and see a person in distress, or never 
 cease working while there is a duty waiting 
 near. The lesson seems to be that we are not to 
 be too scrupulous in inquiring into the charac- 
 ter of the poor, distressed, and needy. Fitness 
 to receive charity need not mean worthiness. 
 If we wait until real merit claim charity we may 
 wait long, while our charity will die, like the 
 sufferers unrelieved. The household of faith 
 must have first care; they are of the same 
 family. Real charity goes beyond. Prudent 
 you ought to be, righteous you must be. You 
 dare not send the drunkard back to his intem^ 
 perance, encourage the indolent in bis vice. 
 Blend justice and mercy in all their elements 
 of strength and beauty. Grod will teach you, 
 if you are ready to learn of him. Better to 
 entertain one angel unawares and be deceived 
 by a crowd of impostors than to lose the bless- 
 ing of the angel's visit. Better that all the 
 objects of your bounty should prove unworthy 
 than that the divine principle of charity should 
 languish in your souls. If all were angels they 
 would not require your food, clothes, or money. 
 It may he applied to some cliurclies. 
 They regard the clouds. Some material develop- 
 inent is required — schools, churches, to be built 
 
WEATHEE-WISE. 269 
 
 or enlarged. All admit necessity, but the time 
 is not come — have done so much, let other 
 churches do their share. The wealthiest are 
 not willing ; we are not all of one mind. Thus 
 the Lord's work tarries at bidding of human 
 convenience or whim or prejudice; opportu- 
 nities are lost, never to be recovered. Some 
 have tarried for months, and the cause has 
 suffered for generations. While men linger 
 the divine glory is waiting to depart. 
 
 It may apply to spiritual prospects. 
 Churches waiting for a revival. The work 
 of preparation is not commenced ; bickerings, 
 jealousies, slanderings, misunderstandings rife. 
 If everything were as we want it to be a 
 revival would not be needed. They set God 
 a time. Diseases are not cured by studying 
 them, but by going to the physician ; even so 
 deploring the state of church will not heal, ex- 
 cept we go to the Great Physician. Men would 
 laugh at a farmer who in time of drought 
 would employ his men in filling up with soil 
 the cracks in the baked soil, or who sent horses 
 and men with vessels to a river to pour water 
 over wide acres of drooping corn ; they would 
 know that one good shower would cure all. 
 Even so we must ask God to " open the win- 
 dows of heaven." 
 
 It may apply to conversion of individ- 
 
270 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 uals. To those who put off the day of salva- 
 tion — who believe in a modified kind of pre- 
 destination ; some supreme moment when they 
 must be saved. This doctrine is dangerous in 
 itself, but its partial belief makes it more dan- 
 gerous. The Sunday scholar intends to be 
 saved when he gets to the select class; then 
 when he has served his time or taken his de- 
 grees; and so on through commencing busi- 
 ness, getting it well in hand, establishing his 
 family, winning competency. Satan is always 
 near to manufacture excuses, but no excuse is 
 excusable if we neglect our great salvation. 
 Godliness is at all times a great gain, but those 
 who come earliest get it most readily. True 
 repentance is seldom too late ; but late repen- 
 tance is seldom true. God, who has given you 
 all your days, deserves at least your best days. 
 Don't wait until in unavailing regret you say : 
 
 " My heart is very tired, my strength is low, 
 My hands are full of blossoms plucked before, 
 Held dead within them till myself shall die." 
 
 2, Folly seen when we consider that 
 the present alone is ours. God is frugal of 
 time ; gives but one moment at a time ; does 
 not give a second until he withdraws the first. 
 The best way to prepare for the last moment 
 is to use the present well. Too often we dote 
 
WEATHER-WISE. 271 
 
 upon the present hour as if it would never 
 end, and neglect the next as if it would never 
 begin. Time is the bud, eternity the bloom; 
 time the chrysalis from which springs eternity. 
 Present faithfulness is a promissory note to 
 be paid in eternity in heaven's best coin. 
 Though God gives us so little time he gives 
 us enough ; short as it is, it contains precious 
 possibilities. The body-guard of the Eternal 
 King, in all their loyal love and zeal, could not 
 do so much for our soul's eternal weal as these 
 moments which pass over some unheeded, as 
 the sunbeam or passing breeze. Time is the 
 seed-sowing of an eternal harvest. He is the 
 greatest spendthrift who spends time, for he 
 who squanders time wastes all the bliss which 
 eternity contains. To the indolent time moves 
 too slowly, for he has never appraised its 
 value; to the Christian too swiftly, for he 
 knows how to stamp on each moment the im- 
 pressions of eternity. 
 
 Regularity of nature encourages the farmer, 
 but it may mislead those who think that length 
 of days must be theirs, that gracious opportu- 
 nity must come with constancy of the seasons. 
 God has a right to set bounds beyond which 
 we cannot pass. "Now unto the King eter- 
 nal, immortal." (1 Tim. i. 17.) 
 
272 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 THE SECRET GROWTH OF THE 
 SEED. 
 
 "For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the 
 blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." — 
 Mark iv. 28. 
 
 1. All growth is a mystery. 
 
 Look at a harvest-field; what a profound 
 mystery it is ! After a man has done all his 
 work and taken all his precautions ; after sci- 
 ence has taught him all it knows about soils 
 and suitable manures and the best methods of 
 culture, what does he know! When he is 
 awake and watching he cannot understand; 
 when he is asleep and unconscious the growth 
 goes on. Our efforts do not produce the life. 
 When we sow we cast the seed into the keep- 
 ing of a higher Power. 
 
 So is it with all growth. Take the little 
 child. We may use our means, but what a 
 mystery there is beyond them all! Can we, 
 with all the proud achievements of so many 
 centuries, add one cubit to any man's stature ? 
 Who can explain how the food is transmuted 
 into flesh and bone, and, more than this, how 
 the food helps to develop the immaterial power 
 to understand and think ? Yes, and further still, 
 we may ask, How does it help to develop love, 
 
THE SECRET GEOWTH OF THE SEED. 273 
 
 sympathy, purity, likeness to God! What a 
 difference between the religion of the child and 
 the saintly man ! The food has enabled him 
 to progress from the one point to the other. 
 
 If you put a seed of iron into the ground, 
 and, lying there, it gathered materials to itself 
 and produced, of itself, a complicated locomo- 
 tive, all would go and pay money to see it. 
 Such a wonder would be in no degree more 
 wonderful than the growth of an ear of corn. 
 It would not be half so wonderful as the 
 growth of any child. 
 
 Need we be surprised, then, that the divine 
 life is a mystery to us ! 
 
 2, Growth is slow. 
 
 The child is eager and impatient and expects 
 what he sows to spring up immediately. Men, 
 too, are often fussy and anxious about their 
 concerns, and want growth to develop in all 
 haste — in a night, like Jonah's gourd. We are 
 impatient of processes and in a hurry to grasp 
 results. But if you try to hasten growth with 
 human expedients, the increased speed is at 
 the expense of strength and durability. What 
 rapidly grows quickly perishes ; what is to last 
 long is of slow development. Rome is not 
 built in a day. The oak attains its massive 
 size and its giant strength not suddenly, but 
 by some hundred years of slow and steady 
 
274 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 growth. God aims at perfection and works 
 for eternity, therefore there is no hurry with 
 him. 
 
 Are we surprised that growth in the divine 
 life in the soul is slow? Do not be disheart- 
 ened at mistakes and at failures. Do not ex- 
 pect a fully developed Christian sanctity all at 
 once. 
 
 3. Growth is orderly. 
 
 " First the blade, then the ear, after that the 
 full corn in the ear." Each in its place, each 
 preparing for what is to come after. We see 
 this orderly development in all life: in the 
 plant, in the growth of a child, and in the suc- 
 cessive steps of the Christian life. In Chris- 
 tian growth it is first the simpler virtues and 
 then the varied high qualities of a true Chris- 
 tian manhood. See the progressive steps as 
 described by St. Peter (2 Pet. i. 5-7). 
 
 4. Growth is continuous. 
 
 Sleeping and waking, night and day, the 
 growth goes on. It is so in the corn ; it is so 
 in the child. 
 
 The changes which pass over nature do not 
 hinder this. Every year we have such differ- 
 ences of atmospheric conditions as might well 
 seem fatal to the continuance of delicate vege- 
 table life. But the growth goes on. We find 
 in time that the very changes which might at 
 
THE SECRET GKOWTH OF THE SEED. 275 
 
 first seem hurtful are really helpful for the de- 
 velopment of the life. Night as well as day, 
 the winter snow and the summer sun, all have 
 their place and do their work in helping this 
 continuous growth. 
 
 So is it with the changes which come to us 
 in life which seem sad, which we may even 
 shrink from with dread; yet the Christian 
 growth within goes on in spite of them. Nay, 
 we often find that the things which seemed 
 most hurtful to us are those which, under 
 God's providence, most helped forward the 
 growth of the spiritual life. 
 
 The great truth taught in this parable is 
 that all growth is a mystery to us. It is so in 
 the corn and in the child, and still more so 
 when we try to study the divine life in a hu- 
 man soul. The germ of truth and righteous- 
 ness is planted within us by God's loving care. 
 It goes on developing while we are sleeping 
 and waking, we know not how. Our anxiety 
 and fussy impatience cannot hasten it. A 
 power outside us does its own great and benef- 
 icent work. As the corn and the lily grow by 
 a power within themselves, so the divine life 
 within us has a spontaneous, inherent energy 
 of its own. You cannot make them grow by 
 any or all your efforts ; you can only help to 
 supply suitable conditions. The lesson of the 
 
276 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 parable is not about the influence of the soil, 
 the sunlight, and the rain — that influence is 
 implied ; but the main truth is that the power 
 of growth is in the thing itself, and is not im- 
 parted to it by any external agency. 
 
 So it is with the divine life. The seed of 
 truth grows within us by virtue of its own in- 
 herent energy. It only wants suitable condi- 
 tions and it will grow. Do not be afraid to 
 trust to that power. Do not be over-anxious. 
 Expect everything from God, but do not ex- 
 pect everything at once. All the development 
 of that higher life will come, if you will be 
 patient and trusting. In his own time, in his 
 own order, the growth will go on till the 
 ripened ears wave in their beauty ready for 
 the reaper's sickle, and till the true Christian 
 life, humble, trusting, saintly, waits the Mas- 
 ter's call, and is ready for the garner in the 
 heavenly habitations. 
 
 GOD SUPPLYING HUMAN NEED. 
 
 " My God shall supply all your need according to his riches 
 in glory by Christ Jesus." — Phil. iv. 19. 
 
 The Philippian church had sent gifts to St. 
 Paul during his imprisonment at Eome. The 
 Apostle acknowledged their love and liberality 
 
GOD SUPPLYING HUMAN NEED. 277 
 
 with a grateful heart. He did not covet their 
 gifts — the spirit of the hireling had no place 
 in his heart — yet he received them thankfully : 
 
 1. Because of the principle involved — 
 the laborer was worthy of his hire. They 
 who preach the gospel shall live of the gospel. 
 This is true and binding on all ages. 
 
 2. Because the offering was a mark of 
 their love for him. While he did not want 
 the gift, he was grateful for the love which 
 offered it. 
 
 The thought of the gift suggested the words 
 of the text. God knew their liberality and 
 self-denial. The service offered to the Apostle 
 in his need would be remembered and re- 
 warded. (Luke vi. 38.) St. Paul could make 
 no return, but God would surely repay them. 
 
 1. The fact — Grod would supply all their 
 need. 
 
 How many and how varied are the needs of 
 men ! There is little need to enlarge on such 
 a theme, for experience teaches us surely and 
 sometimes bitterly enough. 
 
 There are the wants of the body. Food and 
 raiment are daily needs. Life, with its mani- 
 fold activities, is a consuming thing, and fresh 
 supplies are conditions of its continued exis- 
 tence. 
 
 God supplies even all these needs of ours. 
 
278 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 How wonderfully and how liberally lie is al- 
 ways doing this ! What a marvelous store- 
 house this world is ! The earth and the sea 
 are teeming with the living things on which 
 the more complex life of man is sustained. 
 
 Our own toil must not blind our eyes to 
 this truth — for what do we work upon ! We 
 create nothing. All our labor is but fashion- 
 ing, for immediate use, the substances which 
 we find ready to our hands. If Grod's world 
 gave us not its manifold produce all human 
 industries would immediately collapse, all hu- 
 man life would speedily end. 
 
 We may think, then, of our Master's teach- 
 ing — how the birds of the air are fed, how the 
 lilies of the field bloom with their marvelous 
 beauty; much more will the same divine 
 bounty provide for us. The testimony to the 
 psalmist's experience (xxxvii. 25) is ever ac- 
 cumulating, generation after generation. 
 
 Then there are the deeper needs of the soul. 
 
 We are defiled with sin. The divine image 
 in us is dim, well-nigh effaced. We want 
 cleansing and renewal. The fetters of sin 
 must be broken for us ; we cannot break them 
 ourselves. We want grace and strength plant- 
 ed in the soul to enable us to fight life's battles 
 as good soldiers of Christ Jesus. Whence can 
 such needs be supplied! The world has its 
 
GOD SUPPLYING HUMAN NEED. 279 
 
 remedies — education, thrift, music, temper- 
 ance, and so on, all good in their place, but 
 all powerless to heal the plague of sin. We 
 may drink of these waters, but we shall thirst 
 again. Experience teaches that all human 
 remedies are blundering and impotent; but 
 God in mercy supplies our spiritual need. His 
 grace brings cleansing, healing, and newness 
 of life to the soul. 
 
 2. The iiistrumentality by which God 
 supplies it — " by Christ Jesus." 
 
 God is everywhere present. While distinctly 
 a person, he surrounds us like the atmosphere 
 in which we dwell. "In him we live and 
 move," in more senses, perchance, than we com- 
 monly think of. He is everywhere present, 
 like the light which jB.lls the broad universe; 
 no nook or cranny is hidden from it. But 
 this, to most of us, is an abstraction. We 
 know that we live ever in that divine presence, 
 and yet we think but little of it. The faith 
 faculty, by which alone we can apprehend it, 
 is small. How is this to become real to us? 
 What connecting-link can there be between us 
 and God I How can finite manhood meet and 
 touch the Infinite? What channel can reach 
 from heaven to earth ! 
 
 God has mercifully put this truth before us 
 in a concrete form, not in the shape of doc- 
 
280 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 trine only, but by a living person. Just as a 
 burning glass gathers the scattered rays of 
 light into one focus whereby the presence and 
 power of the light become the more manifest, 
 so in Christ Jesus we have the Deity which 
 fills the broad universe manifest in a living 
 person. Through his earthly ministry divine 
 grace shines upon us, and the light of heaven 
 falls in a bright focal stream upon a sin-dark- 
 ened earth. This is historically true. He is 
 " the Word made flesh." (1 Cor. i. 30 ; Col. ii. 
 3 ; Eph. ii. ; Col. ii.) 
 
 3, In what measure will God supply 
 man's need ? 
 
 How will God give ? With stinting, grudg- 
 ing, niggardly hand*? Nay, but according to 
 the perfection of his nature and his divine 
 greatness. (Eph. i. 7., iii. 8, 16.) 
 
 Look at the world. Has God created those 
 things only which are sufficient for our wants ! 
 Nay, the world is teeming with life and is full 
 of beauty. Gorgeous coloring, richest per- 
 fumes are scattered everywhere, not for the 
 supply of man's wants, but to give him plea- 
 sure and to gratify the instinct in him which 
 appreciates the perfect and admires the beau- 
 tiful. Everywhere, and in all ways, God has 
 given with the boundless exuberance of love. 
 
 So, too, does God give in grace. See the 
 pictures of this in the old dispensation: the 
 
GOD SUPPLYING HUMAN NEED. 281 
 
 water flowing from the smitten rock, not a 
 little stream, but sufficient for all the mighty 
 multitude, for all their flocks and herds, for 
 all their wants ; the manna. 
 
 These pictures are fulfilled in the new cove- 
 nant. Look at Christ. He gave gifts and 
 bestowed blessings in the same lavish, loving 
 way. When he fed the five thousand was it 
 with just a scanty supply for each ! Nay, but 
 after they had all eaten and were filled they 
 took up of the fragments which were left 
 twelve baskets full. So was it ever : not one 
 miracle or one of a kind, but he was ever 
 healing. Multitudes making their eager de- 
 mands upon him in no degree impaired the 
 fullness of his grace and power. A very foun- 
 tain of mercy was opened which all the needs 
 of men could not exhaust. Day by day they 
 brought the sick and the suffering to him, and 
 virtue ever went out of him to heal them all. 
 
 The text teaches us a great lesson. It would 
 plant faith and hope and courage in every 
 earnest heart. Are we looking forward to a 
 dark future with foreboding heart? Are the 
 clouds above us black and threatening, and 
 the path before us arid and desert-like ? Are 
 we cast down and disquieted? (Ps. xlii. 5.) 
 We must have faith in God. He will supply 
 all our need, whatever the need may be. He 
 is our sun and shield, our light in the world's 
 
282 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 darkness, our defense in the world's danger. 
 We are weak in ourselves. We may always 
 be strong in him. We may trust him at all 
 times and for all things. In quiet days he 
 leads us in green pastures and by the still 
 waters. In the dark valley he is with us to 
 support and comfort us. In strife and danger 
 he prepares our table in the very presence of 
 our enemies. (Ps. xxiii.) 
 
 We may trust him at all times and for all 
 things. God's power and wisdom and love are 
 all infinite. You can no more exhaust his 
 fullness than you can exhaust the depths of 
 the sea. He will supply all your need accord- 
 ing to the measure of his own greatness by 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 My Grod — St. Paul's personal experience of 
 God's loving care is the assurance that they 
 too will be watched over and provided for. 
 
 PEAISE. 
 
 " O Lord, I will praise thee : . . . the Lord Jehovah is my 
 strength and my song. . . . Sing unto the Lord ; for he hath 
 done excellent things : this is known in all the earth." — Isa. 
 xii. 1, 2, 5. 
 
 This whole chapter is a song of praise. Joy, 
 gladness, thanksgiving, sparkle in every verse 
 
PRAISE. 283 
 
 of it. And yet how little we hear of this praise 
 in ordinary life ! Perhaps we may add, How 
 seldom do we find it bursting forth from our 
 own hearts! Our thoughts generally center 
 upon ourselves. When we praise, ourselves, 
 our families, our connections, and not Grod, 
 are too frequently the objects of it. Look at 
 verses 3 and 4. Would that that day had 
 come! 
 
 Praise itself is uncommon. Listen to the 
 ordinary talk of every-day life, and, as Lord 
 Bacon says, you shall hear more hearse-like 
 airs than carols. We may go a step further 
 and say praise is not natural to us. 
 
 The prophet's grounds of praise were not 
 found in those gifts and possessions which 
 are, and probably must be, unequally distrib- 
 uted here on earth : not unbroken health, large 
 means, commanding intellect, denied to the 
 many, but bestowed upon him ; not these, but 
 the priceless spiritual possessions which God 
 offers with loving bounty to every man with- 
 out respect of persons. They are offered, like 
 all God's greatest gifts, not only bountifully, 
 but freely ; like the air, like the sunlight, with- 
 out money and without price. 
 
 The blessings specified in the chapter are ; 
 
 1. The sense of forgiveness (verse 1). 
 
 2, The sense of assurance (verse 2). 
 
284 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 "We have one great common blessing, a gift 
 which is year by year repeated : the produce of 
 the earth which we gather in in the harvest, 
 and by which man's hfe is sustained. We 
 want to think of the importance of this pro- 
 duce, and to feel that it is God's gift, because 
 that is the only true basis for a thanksgiving 
 service. 
 
 When mercy is realized, then thanksgiving 
 must be the inevitable result. When we find, 
 by happy experience, that Jehovah is our 
 strength, then the grateful heart says that 
 he also shall be its song. True thanksgiving 
 touches every part of our being. It does not 
 limit itself to merely barren words ; it is fruit- 
 ful in acts of self-sacrifice and love. We show 
 forth God's praise " not only with our lips, but 
 in our lives, by giving up ourselves to his ser- 
 vice." 
 
 What a picture of deepest thankfulness we 
 have in the woman that was a sinner. See 
 her eyes red with weeping, her hair streaming 
 and disheveled as she knelt before Christ with 
 deep humility and yet with adoring love, that 
 she might wash his feet with her tears and 
 wipe them with the hair of her head. See her 
 breaking the alabaster box and pouring the 
 precious ointment on his head. Why these 
 lavish expressions of love? Because of the 
 
PKAISE. 285 
 
 greatness of the mercies she had received. 
 Much had been forgiven her, and therefore 
 her love was great. 
 
 The Feast of Tabernacles — a great, bright, 
 joyful thanksgiving for God's yearly gifts in 
 nature. They felt it was divine bounty which 
 blessed the national life and sustained them 
 all. 
 
 It must be so. Where great mercies have 
 been received they must manifest themselves 
 in both public and private thanksgiving. As 
 may be seen on some calm summer day by the 
 sea-shore, when looking out on the bosom of 
 the great deep — far as the eye can reach, it is 
 bright and radiant as a sea mingled with fire ; 
 every breaking wave sparkles with diamond- 
 like luster in its ceaseless motion. Whence 
 comes all its glittering beauty? It is only 
 giving back to the earth and sky the bright- 
 ness which it has received from the noonday 
 sun. 
 
 So if we have received God's precious gifts, 
 if we are conscious of the blessing of them to 
 us, they must manifest themselves in our lives. 
 If the love of God is shining upon our hearts, 
 the brightness will diffuse itself around us. 
 It must be reflected back to God, from whom 
 it came, in words of praise and in deeds of 
 love. 
 
286 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 In all our praise, in all onr benevolence, we 
 are only giving back to God a part of that 
 which we have so freely received from him. 
 
 Thanksgiving is the result of God's great 
 gifts to us in nature. 
 
 THE MORAL LESSONS OF THE 
 HARVEST. 
 
 " Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns." 
 — Jer. iv. 3. 
 
 1. Preparation. When you see a corn- 
 field, you know the corn did not always grow 
 there. The land had to be cleared and plowed. 
 The wilderness will not blossom as the rose by 
 itself. The obstacles must be removed out of 
 the path of the beautiful and useful before 
 they will come and possess the world. 
 
 So is it in human education, in ordinary 
 business, and in all the training of human 
 character in higher things. If the Lord is to 
 come to us and dwell within us, we must pre- 
 pare the way for him and make his paths 
 straight. 
 
 A turning away from evil before we can 
 walk in newness of life. 
 
 2. Labor. " And the Feast of Harvest, the 
 first-fruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown 
 
THE MOEAL LESSONS OF THE HARVEST. 287 
 
 in the field: and the Feast of Ingathering, 
 which is in the end of the year, when thou hast 
 gathered in thy labors out of the field." (Exod. 
 xxiii. 16.) 
 
 The harvest, while the gift of Grod, is also 
 the reward of man's toil. God has so ordered 
 it that many of his precious gifts shall come 
 to us through the channel of human effort. 
 How great the toil in the sowing and the reap- 
 ing, from morn till night, day after day ! But 
 how ample is the reward ! 
 
 "In all labor there is profit." Not only in 
 agriculture, but in every part of human life. 
 What we sow of good, in toil and perhaps even 
 in tears, we shall reap in joy. 
 
 3. Patience. "Behold, the husbandman 
 waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and 
 hath long patience for it, until he receive the 
 early and latter rain. Be ye also patient." 
 (James v. 7, 8.) 
 
 The seed is cast from the sower's hand out 
 of sight; seems for a time to be lost. The 
 husbandman waits. After a while it appears ; 
 even then the growth is slow, and many alien 
 influences are at work. He waits. He does 
 not wait in vain. 
 
 Be ye patient in all things : growth is always 
 slow. Do not be in a hurry to be rich. 
 
 Be patient in moral things : growth in good- 
 
288 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 ness is slow ; you must not expect to become 
 a complete saint in a day. 
 
 4. Hope and trust always. "I had 
 
 fainted, unless I had believed to see the good- 
 ness of the Lord in the land of the living. 
 Wait on the Lord : be of good courage, and he 
 shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on 
 the Lord." (Ps. xxvii. 13, 14.) 
 
 Courage, hope, belief in the goodness of God 
 are the great supports of human life. 
 
 That divine goodness will never fail his true 
 children. The harvest will surely come. The 
 toil will be crowned with rich reward. The 
 sheaves shall be brought home in due time. 
 
 So will it be, also, in all other parts of our 
 life. 
 
 NATUEE WAITING UPON GOD. 
 
 " The eyes of all wait upon thee ; and thou givest them 
 their meat in due season." — Ps. cxlv. 15. 
 
 Nature, animate and inanimate, depends 
 upon God for the supply of all wants. This 
 is true of the animals. (Ps. civ. 21 ; Joel i. 20.) 
 
 Man, with larger knowledge, trusts and 
 prays: "Give us this day our daily bread." 
 God hears the cry. He knows the need and 
 mercifully supplies it. He gives : 
 
NATUEE WAITING UPON GOD. 289 
 
 1. What is good. "They are filled with 
 good." 
 
 He bestows what is suitable to our physical 
 condition. There is a wonderful adaptation 
 between our need and the supply which the 
 world produces. The wants of different crea- 
 tures are various indeed, but every one of 
 them finds his suitable food. 
 
 The gifts of nature are fitted for every kind 
 and order of life. 
 
 2. In abundance. There is no stint in 
 nature. Even the " hired servants have bread 
 enough and to spare." Man, and the lower 
 creatures of all ranks, are "filled with good." 
 " God opens his hand, and satisfies the desire 
 of every living thing." " He fills us with the 
 finest of the wheat." 
 
 3. Year by year — regularly. As the need 
 is unceasing so the supply is unceasing too. 
 The promise is that seed-time and harvest 
 shall not cease. 
 
 All wait upon God. Where else can they 
 go ? What can human governments and asso- 
 ciations do for us here? All the science in 
 the world cannot make a single blade of grass 
 or a single ear of corn. We look up to God. 
 He can supply our wants. He has done so 
 fhrough all the past. We can trust him for all 
 the future. Let us bless him for his bounty 
 
290 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 as we see it in " our creation, preservation, 
 and all the blessings of this life." Let ns show 
 our thankfulness " not only with our lips, but 
 in our lives " — by active and loyal service. 
 
 THE FEAST OF HARVEST. 
 
 " He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for 
 the service of man : that he may bring forth food out of the 
 earth." — Ps. civ. 14. 
 
 Harvest a great feast — as Tabernacles was 
 with the Jews. The Feast of the Ingathering 
 was the most joyful time of the year — and for 
 many reasons. 
 
 I. The need and the blessing of the 
 harvest. 
 
 Our life is depending on these blades of grass 
 and ears of corn. Without our food and our 
 clothing we could not live long. They are far 
 more important than money. Money has no 
 value in itself; its value is only because we 
 can purchase necessary things with it. Ship- 
 wrecked sailors, cast upon a desolate island, 
 find a mountain of gold, but no grass, no corn, 
 no life ; what would the gold be worth I 
 
 We rejoice, then, when the harvest comes 
 round, when we gather the corn and fruit once 
 more into the garners, because the supply fdi* 
 another year is safely stored,. 
 
THE FEAST OF HAEVEST. 291 
 
 rr. We come to church. Why? The 
 
 Jew went up to the temple at Jerusalem to 
 keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Why ? Where 
 does the harvest come from ? Nature 1 How 
 can nature produce by itself! Some people 
 seem to think the world is hke a clock, which 
 works and works by itself when it is wound 
 up. We believe that Grod created the worlds. 
 (Gen. i. 1.) Grod sets these natural processes 
 in motion. God sustains the life of the world. 
 
 Jesus multiplying the bread and feeding the 
 hungry multitudes : showing us by the miracle 
 what God is always doing for us by the slower 
 annual produce of the earth. So every harvest 
 we see God's gifts renewed. We look at the 
 yellow fields of waving corn, and the fruit- 
 trees, their boughs bending to the earth with 
 their precious produce, and we sing with grate- 
 ful hearts : " Thou crownest the year with thy 
 goodness." We see God's bounty and love 
 giving us all things necessary for the support 
 and comfort of life. 
 
 We make the harvest, therefore, not merely 
 a feast, but a religious feast. We come to 
 church because we want to publicly thank and 
 praise God. 
 
 III. The harvest a picture of many most 
 important truths : 
 
 1. As God gives seed to sow in the fields, so 
 
292 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 he gives the germs of heavenly truth and spir- 
 itual life to take root in the hearts of men. 
 As the rain and snow and sunlight are all 
 intended to produce certain definite results 
 upon the earth, making it fruitful, so God's 
 "Word acts upon believing souls (Isa. Iv. 10, 
 11.) 
 
 2. " Man shall not live by bread alone." " I 
 have meat to eat that ye know not of." 
 
 We all have another life as well as the bodily 
 one : the life of the spirit. This needs bread, 
 " the bread of life," for its sustenance. This 
 needs vesture, even truth and righteousness, 
 for its covering. WTiat God does for the body 
 in the abundant supplies of the harvest is a 
 picture of what he also does for the soul, send- 
 ing us his quickening eternal truth; sending 
 Christ and the Divine Spirit to the world. 
 
 3. Why, then, is there so little goodness in 
 the world 1 Because, while the earth responds 
 to God's influence, and is obedient to the laws 
 by which it is governed, man too often is self- 
 willed and disobedient. He rejects the mercy 
 and help which are offered to him. Parable 
 of the Sower. Man's heart is hard like the 
 wayside, or shallow like the stony ground, or 
 preoccupied with worldly things like the soil 
 filled with thorns. Only one out of four good 
 ground. 
 
THANKSGIVING — ITS DEFINITION. 293 
 
 4. We are sowers too. Every action, every 
 word, has a germ of life in it. It grows np, it 
 meets us in the years to come. (Gal. vi. 7 ; Ps. 
 cxxvi. 5, 6.) Will a man sow thistles in his 
 field ? Will he sow evil in his life 1 Sow faith, 
 prayer, self-denial, goodness, love. For — 
 
 5. Harvest comes. The angel reapers will 
 come and separate the tares from the wheat. 
 What is growing in us ? Pray : 
 
 " Lord of harvest, grant that we 
 Wholesome grain and pui'e may "be." 
 
 THANKSGIVINa— ITS DEFINITION. 
 
 BY ISAAC BARROWS, D.D. 
 
 " The act of giving thanks or expressing 
 gratitude for favors or mercy received " is the 
 cyclopedic and universal definition of Thanks- 
 giving. 
 
 It implies : 
 
 1. A right apprehension of tlie benefits 
 conferred. 
 
 2. A faithful retention of the benefits 
 in tlie memory, and frequent reflections 
 upon tliem. 
 
 3. A due esteem and valuation of bene- 
 fits. 
 
294: THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 4. A reception of those benefits with a 
 willing mind, a vehement aiFection. 
 
 5. Due acknowledgment of our obliga- 
 tions. 
 
 6. Endeavors of real compensation, or, 
 as it respects the Divine Being, a willing- 
 ness to serve and exalt him. 
 
 7. Esteem, veneration, and love of the 
 benefactor. 
 
 THANKSaiYINa DAY. 
 
 BY E. H. S. 
 
 It is for us to accept the day with all it has 
 for us, thankfully to unite in praise to Him 
 who, for his own, doeth all things well. The 
 coloring of each life is laid on by unerring wis- 
 dom, and the very darkest shades will prove a 
 fitting background for the completed whole, 
 when we view in the glory of heaven the pic- 
 ture of the years. Then let us be truly grate- 
 ful for: 
 
 1. Treasures in heaven. 
 
 2. Hopes that fade not away. 
 
 3. Anticipations to be realized. 
 
 4. Newness of life in Christ Jesus. 
 
 5. Knowledge of the blessed Com- 
 
 forter. 
 
HAKVEST FESTIVAL. 295 
 
 6. Salvation. 
 
 7. Grod's promises. 
 
 8. Innumerable mercies. 
 
 9. Victory over sin. 
 
 10. IneflFable glories beyond. 
 
 11. Nourishment of soul as well as body. 
 
 12. Grace suflftcient. 
 
 13. Discipline. 
 
 14. Ansvi^er to prayer. 
 
 15. Years that know no limit. 
 
 "And at the last, 
 When all the days have lost the wondrous power 
 Of brightening joy with sorrow of an hour, 
 When time is past, 
 
 " When all is rest, 
 Life's ripened glory, like the western sky. 
 And morn of heaven, and love of Christ is nigh- 
 Then all is best." 
 
 HAEYEST FESTIVAL. 
 
 BY THE EEV. M. F. SADLEE. 
 "Ye are God's husbandry." — 1 Cor. iii. 9. 
 
 All onr salvation is of God througli Christ, 
 but are we allowed to cooperate ! There are 
 some who teach, or seem to teach, that the 
 work of salvation is so entirely God's that man 
 
296 THANKSGIVING SEBMONS. 
 
 has to do nothing ; he has simply to lie still 
 and allow himself to be acted upon by God. 
 But the teaching of all Scripture is against 
 this. Especially are those very numerous pas- 
 sages in Scripture against it which illustrate 
 the work of salvation by the work of husban- 
 dry. Such is our text. 
 
 Let us look first at God's operation. 
 
 God prepares the seed : he causes that 
 every seed we sow should have a germ of life 
 in it. God prepares the ground so that it 
 should be, as it were, a fruitful womb for the 
 seed. Then he sends his rain, without which 
 the young plant would get no nourishment 
 from the dry soil. Then he sends the sunshine, 
 without which the seed would not germinate 
 and shoot forth above ground. These are 
 some of the things which God does. Then, 
 what has man to do ? He has to plow the land 
 which God has prepared; he has to sow the 
 seed into which God has put a living principle ; 
 he has to cleanse the ground from weeds which 
 would choke the seed if permitted to grow ; and 
 when the grain is ripe he has, in due time, to 
 reap the harvest and to gather it safe into his 
 barn. Now in all this he has to work with 
 God. 
 
 And so in the spiritual harvest. He 
 has to prepare his soul — he has to break 
 
THE HAEVEST. 297 
 
 tip his fallow ground with the plowshare of 
 repentance; he has to sow his soul with the 
 good seed of God's Word in order that it may 
 bring forth the fruit of good works ; he has 
 to weed his soul, for there is one always at 
 hand sowing noxious weeds. But has he to 
 reap? Yes, because the Spirit of God has 
 said, " Let us not be weary in well-doing : for 
 in due season we shall reap, if we faint not ; " 
 and yet he has to wait and prepare for the an- 
 gelic reaping, when the Lord will say, " Gather 
 ye together first the tares, and bind them in 
 bundles to burn them : but gather the wheat 
 into my barn." 
 
 THE HAEVEST. 
 
 " He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest." 
 — Jer. V. 24. 
 
 Theke are two especial teachings respecting 
 God to be learned from the harvest — his power 
 and his faithfulness. 
 
 His power. The united skill and power of 
 the world could not make one seed, much less 
 implant in it a principle of life ; and yet God 
 causes seeds which man has sown to spring up 
 every year in every part of the world, enough 
 
298 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 to feed the whole human family. Men try to 
 elude the force of this, as setting forth the 
 power and the will of God, by saying that 
 seeds grow and produce food by a law of na- 
 ture : but a law of itself can do nothing. A 
 law is imposed by a reasoning lawgiver, who 
 must not only enact the law, but see that it is 
 carried into effect. This must be the case with 
 unconscious, unreasoning matter such as seeds 
 are made of. God must be in every field, and 
 in every inch of that field, or the seed sown 
 would not vegetate. When a sovereign makes 
 a law it by no means follows that that law is 
 observed. There must be forces stationed in 
 every part of the kingdom to make the law 
 observed universally. There must be a power- 
 ful will everywhere to overawe the wills of the 
 disobedient, and much more must this be the 
 case with dead, unthinking matter. God must 
 be at work in every field you sow, to make 
 the seed sown not only spring up, but spring 
 up in the particular form of the plant you de- 
 sire. 
 
 Then, in the next place, the regular re- 
 currence of the time of harvest is a proof 
 of the faithfulness of God. "While the 
 earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, . . . 
 day and night, shall not cease." (Gen. viii. 22.) 
 Again, "He reserveth unto us the appointed 
 
FOR WHAT TO GIVE THANKS. 299 
 
 weeks of the harvest." ( Jer. v. 24.) Now con- 
 sider under what provocation God has thus 
 held to his promise. The race of men, as a race, 
 cannot be said to acknowledge him. Scarcely 
 a quarter of the world worships, even out- 
 wardly, the ever-blessed Trinity ; and see how 
 they go counter to him — even those who are 
 nominal Christians — to the law of right which 
 he has written in their hearts. And yet, 
 though they do not acknowledge him, he gives 
 them " rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, 
 filling their hearts with food and gladness." 
 Lord, make us ever mindful of all thy mercies ! 
 In everything may we give thanks for this thy 
 will in thy Son concerning us ! 
 
 FOR WHAT TO GIVE THANKS. 
 
 BY REV. J. H. BROOKES. 
 
 1. For God's goodness. O give thanks 
 unto the Lord ; for he is good ; for his mercy 
 endureth forever." (1 Chron. xvi. 34 ; Ps. cvii. 
 1, cxviii. 1.) 
 
 2. For his holiness. " Sing unto the Lord, 
 O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the re- 
 membrance of his holiness." (Ps. xxx. 4, xcvii. 
 12, cxl. 13.) 
 
300 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 3. For revealing himself. ^'Unto thee, 
 O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we 
 give thanks : for that thy name is near thy won- 
 drous works declare." (Ps. Ixxv. 1, cxxxviii. 
 2 ; 1 Thess. ii. 13.) 
 
 4. For the gift of his Son. " Thanks be 
 unto God for his unspeakable gift." (2 Cor. 
 ix. 15.) '^ For God so loved the world, that he 
 gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
 believeth in him should not perish, but have 
 everlasting life." (John iii. 16 ; Rom. vi. 23.) 
 
 5. For a present salvation. "Giving 
 thanks unto the Father, which hath made us 
 meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the 
 saints in light : who hath delivered us from the 
 power of darkness, and hath translated us into 
 the kingdom of his dear Son." (Col. i. 12, 13 ; 
 John vi. 47.) 
 
 6. For victory. " The sting of death is sin ; 
 and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks 
 be to God, which giveth us the victory through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. xv. 56, 57 ; 
 Rom. vii. 25.) 
 
 7. For everything. "In everything give 
 thanks : for this is the will of God in Christ 
 Jesus concerning you." (1 Thess. v. 18.) " Be 
 careful for nothing; but in everything by 
 prayer and supplication with thanksgiving 
 let your requests be made known unto God." 
 (Phil. iv. 6 ; Eph. v. 20.) 
 
CALL TO GBATITUDE. 301 
 
 CALL TO GRATITUDE. 
 
 BY THE REV. JOHN STEVENSON. 
 "Bless the Lord, O my soul." — Ps. ciii. 22. 
 
 We should often hold our " Jubilee " of en- 
 tire gladness, recapitulating the gracious acts 
 of the Lord with glowing gratitude. We 
 should enumerate the averting of evils that 
 we feared, the unexpected turnings of affairs 
 that revived our hopes, the hairbreadth es- 
 capes that surprised and gladdened us, and 
 the answers to prayer that put our unbelief 
 to shame. 
 
 1. The various circumstances by which 
 mercies have been distinguished and accom- 
 panied should be carefully remembered ; 
 
 2. The seasoiiableness of their supply ; 
 
 3. The tenderness of love and the wisdom 
 of adaptation with which they were brought 
 to our need and suited to our case ; 
 
 4. The greatness of the evils prevented 
 and of the blessings bestowed ; 
 
 5. The health and food and raiment with 
 which God has provided us ; 
 
 6. The friends raised up to us in the hour 
 of difficulty ; 
 
 7. The light which has arisen upon us in 
 seasons of darkness and perplexity ; and, 
 
302 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 8. The peace which has sustained our souls 
 under bereavement, should all be specially and 
 thankfully acknowledged. 
 
 THE DUTY OF THANKSaiVINa. 
 
 BY ISAAC BARROWS, D.D. 
 
 The obligation to this duty arises : 
 
 1. From the relation in whicli we stand 
 to God ; 
 
 2. Tlie divine command ; 
 
 3. Tlie promises God lias made ; 
 
 4. The example of all good men ; 
 
 5. Our unworthiness of the blessings 
 we receive ; 
 
 6. The prospect of eternal glory. 
 Whoever possesses any good without giving 
 
 thanks for it deprives Him who bestows that 
 good of his glory, sets a bad example before 
 others, and prepares a recollection severely 
 painful for himself when he comes in his turn 
 to experience ingratitude. 
 
 THE BLESSINGS FOR WHICH WE 
 SHOULD BE THANKFUL. 
 
 1. Temporal, such as health, food, rai- 
 ment, rest, etc. 
 
PEAYER AND PRAISE. 303 
 
 2. Spiritual, such as the Bible, ordi- 
 nances, the gospel and its blessing^s, as 
 free grace, adoption, pardon, justifica- 
 tion, calling, etc. 
 
 3. Eternal, or the enjoyment of God in 
 a future state. 
 
 4. Also for all that is past, what we 
 now enjoy, and what is promised ; for pri- 
 vate and public, for ordinary and ex- 
 traordinary blessings, for j)rosperity, and 
 even for adversity so far as rendered 
 subservient to our good. 
 
 PRAYEE AND PRAISE. 
 
 BY THE REV. JOHN STEVENSON. 
 
 " In everything give thanks." — 1 Thess. v. 17. 
 
 " Pray without ceasing," says the Apostle, 
 and immediately adds, "In everything give 
 thanks : for this is the will of God in Christ 
 Jesus concerning you.'' Obey this command, 
 O believer ! Look around you for causes for 
 thankfulness. Be eagle-eyed to discern your 
 mercies, rather than your miseries. See how 
 many they are : in the house and in the street ; 
 in the country and in the city; in your own 
 person and in your family ; among your rela- 
 tives and throughout your friends; in your 
 
304 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 native country and in the world at large. 
 Look not always at the dark spots in every 
 picture, lest your mind be darkened like them. 
 Fix your eyes also on the bright and beauti- 
 ful, that your mind may reflect your image. 
 Let the one teach you to pray. Let the other 
 teach you to praise. 
 
 THANKSaiVINO IS A NECESSITY. 
 
 BY THE EEV. S. BAEING-GOULD, M.A. 
 
 " Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done 
 unto him ; for his heart was lifted up : therefore there was 
 wrath upon him." — 2 Chron. xxxii. 25. 
 
 Introduction. What was it that had lifted 
 up the heart of Hezekiah? We read (verses 
 27-30<) : "He prospered in all his works." 
 Why 1 " God gave him substance very much." 
 
 Thanksgiving is a necessity, to keep alive 
 our consciousness of dependence upon God. 
 
 1. Grocl visits in mercy. People forget 
 this. When a man falls dead, when a rich 
 man is ruined, when a nation is humbled, peo- 
 ple talk of it as God's visitation. 
 
 If corn-crops go on right, if trade prospers, 
 we attribute it to the soil and weather, or to 
 our skiKul speculation. But if there comes a 
 
THANKSGIVING IS A NECESSITY. 305 
 
 hail-storm, or a fire consuming our stock, at 
 once — it is Grod's visitation. 
 
 Do you think God only visits the earth to 
 curse it ! David thought differently : " Thou 
 visitest the earth, and blessest it ; thou makest 
 it very plenteous." Every blade of corn grows 
 by the visitation of God. People talk of God 
 as if they saw only his majesty as a retribu- 
 tive justice; but he waters the hills from 
 above. (Read Ps. civ.) 
 
 2. Gratitude, therefore, is due to him 
 for all his mercy that he exerts day by day. 
 Hezekiah had received ; he rendered not in re- 
 turn the thanks that were due to God. The 
 Jews received abundant blessings; they ren- 
 dered not a return, and were cast off. 
 
 Indeed it is a law of nature that return must 
 be made. 
 
 The seas receive the rivers and return the 
 clouds ; the earth receives the grain and dress- 
 ing, and returns the harvest; the flower is 
 given water, and it returns its fragrant scent. 
 
 It is true that we can, of ourselves, make 
 no adequate return, but a means has been pro- 
 vided us for making one, which is an equiva- 
 lent to all blessings accorded us. This means 
 is in the Eucharist. 
 
306 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 ABSTRACT FEOM THANKSGIVING 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 BY THE HON. JOHN W. RAMSEY. 
 
 The year passing away has been to us 
 crowded with blessings; health, peace, and 
 plenty abound. What a happy country is 
 ours, situated between the extremes of heat 
 and cold! A land diversified by mountains 
 and plains, ridges and valleys ; abounding in 
 springs, rivulets, brooks, and rivers. Our for- 
 ests still furnish all the timber necessary for 
 building or furniture; mountains and hills 
 veined with coal and precious metals ; plains 
 and valleys yielding richly in grains and 
 grapes. "We were born in or have adopted a 
 blessed country. The lines have fallen to us 
 in pleasant places. Our opportunities and 
 advantages are wonderful, as compared with 
 those of our fathers. At the peril of their 
 lives they possessed this land. They felled the 
 forests, fenced the farms, built the log cabins 
 and other houses as they could, with poor and 
 limited means ; made the roads and finally the 
 railroads; built the school-houses, churches, 
 and mills in every valley, and prepared the 
 way and the country for their children. They 
 had but few books, their education was mainly 
 
ABSTRACT FEOM THANKSGIVING ADDEESS 307 
 
 practical, but they appreciated the worth of a 
 good education. As for newspapers and mag- 
 azines, they knew but little about them. But 
 if they could not write their names they left 
 their marks deep and lasting behind them. 
 We thank Grod for such fathers and mothers, 
 and what they did for us, and take courage 
 for the future. When we look around we are 
 grateful that God has enabled us to do some- 
 thing to elevate humanity in our country. The 
 old style of farming and domestic work is be- 
 ing replaced by superior implements and work. 
 The log cabins and log stables are passing 
 away, and elegant mansions and convenient 
 barns are taking their places. Fine flouring 
 and merchant mills have sprung up along the 
 streams where the tub corn-cracker rubbed out 
 its few bushels of meal a day. Villages and 
 cities are rising all over the land, with all their 
 conveniences and civilizing and humanizing 
 appliances. The family of the poor is no 
 longer limited to the spelling-book, reader, 
 Bible, and almanac; but almost for the ask- 
 ing can it enjoy a good library of valuable 
 books, magazines, and newspapers. If we do 
 not advance it is our own fault. Our system 
 of government is the best ever yet devised by 
 man: a national government for national 
 matters, with its law-making, law-expounding, 
 
308 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 and law-executing departments ; State govern- 
 ments for local and domestic affairs, with their 
 legislative, judicial, and executive depart- 
 ments ; then our county and corporation de- 
 partments, for our cities and neighborhoods, 
 bringing the streams of legislation and justice 
 to our doors — all done by our consent and 
 free will. Such are but a few of the blessings 
 for which we join in thanksgiving on this 
 bright day. 
 
 GRATITUDE EXPEESSED. 
 
 BY THE REV. R. ANDREW GRIFFIN. 
 
 '^ I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my 
 supplications." — Ps. cxvi. 1. 
 
 First of all, we are constrained to love God 
 for the benefits he has conferred, and tlien 
 more intensely for the disposition which be- 
 stowed these benefits. 
 
 1. The psalmist's heart was filled with 
 gratitude. The affections of the heart are 
 won by God's gentleness and condescension. 
 
 2. His heart was filled with hope. " I 
 will call upon him." He felt that in the future 
 God would be as kind as in the past. 
 
 3. His heart was made strong — so 
 
OUR THANKSGIVING. 309 
 
 strong that he resolutely declares he will 
 never cease pleading and singing before God. 
 In conclusion : 
 
 1. Use past mercies as encouragements 
 for future approaches. Beggars grow bold as 
 their requests are granted. Sinners drew near 
 to Jesus in crowds when it was known that he 
 " received sinners." 
 
 2. Examine yourselves, seeing that past 
 mercies produce this holy confidence. 
 
 3. Be not afraid to place confidence in a 
 prayer-hearing God. 
 
 (1) Trust him when you are in personal 
 trouble. 
 
 (2) Trust him when Jerusalem is in peril. 
 The past should generate present confidence. 
 
 4. Pray always — in public or private, " be- 
 cause he hath heard" prayers offered in the 
 general assembly and in the secret closet. 
 
 5. Forget not your vows : " I will love," 
 etc. ; " I will call," etc. 
 
 OUR THANKSGIVING. 
 
 Our day of national Thanksgiving is in itself 
 a benefaction. It calls upon men once a year 
 at least to thoughtfully consider the mercies 
 of the Lord. Since the degree of our apprecia- 
 
310 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 tion of what God has done for us will deter- 
 mine unmistakably the measure and spirit of 
 our thanksgiving, we cannot do better than to 
 stop and recount and seek to estimate the bene- 
 fits which a smiling Providence has bestowed 
 upon us ; for no one will be thankful for more 
 than he appreciates, and no one will appreci- 
 ate blessings of which he has no realization ; 
 so that not only mercies, nor even a knowledge 
 of mercies, but a sincere and trustful apprecia- 
 tion of mercies, is essential to real gratitude. 
 In making an inventory of the manifold good- 
 ness of God we will consider : 
 
 1. Our country. This is a goodly land. 
 We have a marvelous history of prosperity 
 and growth. To-day no nation under the sun 
 is more highly favored in all that goes to make 
 up good government and a happy and thrifty 
 people than our own. 
 
 During the past twelvemonth no blighting, 
 desolating epidemic has visited our shores. 
 The rose of health has been on the cheek of 
 our people. 
 
 Men of all classes and ranks everywhere have 
 abundant occasion to join hands with the tiller 
 of the soil and shout the harvest-home and re- 
 turn thanks to God. 
 
 But above the material blessings which fill 
 our storehouses and increase our wealth are 
 
OUR THANKSGIVING. 311 
 
 those of a moral and intellectual nature. This 
 is a Christian nation. We have in the United 
 States, of Protestants alone : 
 
 Ministers, 101,796 ; 
 
 Church organizations, 154,901 ; 
 
 Communicants, 13,354,935 ; 
 
 Church edifices, 133,705 ; 
 
 Sittings, 40,189,953; 
 
 Church valuation, $560,258,773. 
 
 Add to this the amount of millions annually 
 paid to support the same, and the whole is 
 overwhelming. How great and precious are 
 the blessings which come to us through the 
 church of Jesus Christ ! 
 
 We cannot speak here of our public schools, 
 colleges, and other institutions which have for 
 their object the amelioration of the condition 
 of our race, old and young, in an intellectual 
 way ; of the newspapers and books, largely re- 
 ligious and beneficent in their influence on in- 
 dividuals and homes. Only this : for all these 
 uplifting, refining, and ennobling influences 
 our thanksgiving should be hearty and devout. 
 
 2. The prosperity of God's cause in the 
 world. The past year has been one of great 
 reUgious awakening and progress throughout 
 the world. In Christian and heathen lands 
 the victories of the cross have been heralded 
 abroad. MultipUed thousands have been res- 
 
312 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 cued from the ways of sin and gathered within 
 the fgld of Christ. We have abundant reason 
 to join in the song of David : " Now, therefore, 
 our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glori- 
 ous name." 
 
 3. Personal blessings. Who has been 
 without personal blessings! Who has not 
 shared the mercies of a gracious Father, even 
 though unmindful of his faithfulness ? Aye, in 
 a thousand ways, from day to day, throughout 
 the year, have the tender love and care of the 
 Lord been manifest to all. But some who 
 have had trouble, financial losses, great trials, 
 or from whom loved ones of the family circle 
 have been called, will ask, ^' How can you say 
 that God has been near to and blessed ah?" 
 Truly, the home may be empty and the grave- 
 yard fuller, but remember the faithfulness of 
 God. A father once sat by the fireside under 
 the shadow of grief. He held his little child 
 on his knee, who asked the meaning of the 
 verse that hung framed over the mantel — 
 "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting 
 the soul." No answer was given. Then the 
 infant questioner said, " Papa, doesn't it mean 
 God makes no mistakes ? " 
 
 Though the outer sunshine may have faded 
 from our pathway, still there is an inner sun- 
 shine which should cheer every heart — " God 
 
HE HATH DONE GREAT THINGS. 313 
 
 makes no mistakes." Then who cannot sing 
 praises to God! To him, the Giver of all 
 good, let us render with pure and glad hearts, 
 and with renewed consecration for the years 
 to come, our thanksgiving. — Selected, 
 
 HE HATH DONE GREAT THINGS. 
 
 BY THE REV. W. H. STRICKLAND. 
 
 " The Lord hath done great things for us ; whereof we are 
 glad." — Ps. cxxvi. 3. 
 
 These words voice a national thanksgiving. 
 They are the grateful song of liberated Hebrew 
 captives. With a genuine heartiness it wells 
 up from the very depths of their being. For 
 many years they had worn the yoke of bond- 
 age ; had dwelt in a strange land. Their cap- 
 tivity in Babylon was a punishment for their 
 idolatry ; but its long term expires, and their 
 state is so gleeful that all their neighbors no- 
 tice it. Observe the opening of the psalm: 
 "When the Lord turned again the captivity 
 of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then 
 was our mouth filled with laughter, and our 
 tongue with singing: then said they among 
 the heathen, The Lord hath done great things 
 for them ; " and the liberated sons of Judah re- 
 
314 THANKSGIVING SEBMONS. 
 
 ply, " The Lord hath done great things for us ; 
 whereof we are glad." 
 
 The atheist says, "No God" — no all- wise, 
 almighty, superintending Being. Who made 
 this universe and regulates, repairs, and sus- 
 tains its vast, intricate machinery? In love 
 with "the gospel of dirt," he sees a "power 
 and potency in nature " capable of producing 
 and sustaining all about us, above us, within 
 us. 
 
 He tells us that all our poetry, our eloquence, 
 our science, our art, our emotion, our senti- 
 ment, our patriotism, our reasoning, once 
 burned fiercely in the fires of the sun. He 
 declares that theology is exploded, and corre- 
 lation of force and conservation of force take 
 the place with him of Grod and revelation. 
 
 He taunts the Christian with his fetish. De- 
 ceiving himself, he exalts matter and bows be- 
 fore it as his fetish. Until he can practise icon- 
 oclasm for himself, let him cease to rail at the 
 Christian. Away with such doctrine. It is as 
 heartless, as feelingless, as lifeless as the strata 
 of the granite hills. It has no eye to pity ; it 
 stretches forth no hand to save; it has no 
 gratitude for favors received; its ear is dead 
 to the wail of the helpless and the guilty ; its 
 eternal silence is the crudest mockery in the 
 ear of want and woe. 
 
HE HATH DONE GREAT THINGS. 315 
 
 The deist acknowledges a personal God, but 
 wraps him in garments of indifference and in- 
 sensibility to the wants of his own children. 
 
 More careless than the ostrich of the desert, 
 he stoops not to pity or relieve the workman- 
 ship of his own hands. 
 
 Deism makes the Eternal a sort of ship- 
 builder, who, having fashioned his craft, sup- 
 plied its wants, and adjusted it to its element, 
 launched it, and straightway relinquished all 
 interest in ship, crew, cargo, leaving them to 
 the vicissitudes of storm and calm, rock and 
 beach. 
 
 So deism tells us, God, having made the 
 worlds, and peopled them and adjusted them 
 to their environments, retires from the scene 
 and concerns himself no further for their suc- 
 cess or failure. Practically deism is no better 
 than atheism : such a God is worth no more 
 to man than no God. 
 
 The Bible reveals to us a Being who repre- 
 sents himself as a wise, loving, beneficent 
 Father, as a supervising and superintending 
 Providence, whose heart is interested in every 
 object of his handiwork ; whose ears are ever 
 open to the cries of his children ; who notes 
 the falling of a sparrow and corrects the quo- 
 tations in the daily price-current of little birds ; 
 who causeth the grass to grow for the cattle ; 
 
316 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS. 
 
 who heareth the young ravens when they cry ; 
 whose arm of might and whose word of com- 
 fort are alike extended to all the sons of a 
 ruined race ; whose soul, tilled with sorrow, 
 weeps tears of compassion for his erring, un- 
 grateful offspring. 
 
 Such was the Hebrew God. "The Lord 
 hath done great things for us." 
 
 The theology of the patriarchs and the 
 prophets makes no account of second causes — 
 all is traced directly back to Jehovah. 
 
 Said Job, suffering under the afflictive dis- 
 pensations, "The Lord gave, and the Lord 
 hath taken away." 
 
 Said Joseph to his confused, convicted, com- 
 fortless brethren, " Grod did send me before 
 you to preserve life." 
 
 " The Lord hath done great things for us." 
 
 The God of grace and providence is the 
 Christian's God. 
 
 The child of faith hears a Father's tones and 
 sees a Father's hand in everything. That man 
 is miserable who sees the cyclone level his es- 
 tates and devastate his property and yet sets 
 it down to the hand of fate or chance ; he frets 
 and murmurs. But he is calm, restful, trust- 
 ful, who sees God's hand in the floods and 
 di'ought. He can say, " It is the Lord : let him 
 do what seemeth to him good." 
 
HE HATH DONE GEEAT THINGS. 317 
 
 Brethren, we magnify second causes and 
 minimize the supernatural. Let us study the 
 natural, but let us not forget to magnify Grod. 
 Losing sight of God tends to unhappiness. 
 
 To-day we are met, in response to the chief 
 magistrate of the republic and the governor of 
 our State, to engage in national thanksgiving 
 and praise. It is befitting so to meet. Al- 
 mighty God gave to our fathers this broad 
 land in which we live, and he has fashioned 
 us what we are to-day. 
 
 'Tis meet that we thank him for civil liberty 
 and religious freedom. He has led us by the 
 hand and exalted us far above our fellows of 
 other ages and climes. 
 
 He smote one rock for the children of Israel : 
 the waters gushed forth. He has smitten a 
 thousand rocks for us, and our thirst is ever 
 satisfied. The Jews were God's ancient peo- 
 ple ; we are God's modern people. They wan- 
 dered in a desert forty years; we have dwelt 
 in a garden a hundred years. With greater 
 propriety than those liberated captives can we 
 say, " The Lord hath done great things for 
 us ; whereof we are glad." I speak not in hy- 
 perbole when I say the people of the United 
 States are the most highly favored people 
 under the sun. 
 
 " Great things," says the text ; religious lib- 
 
318 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 erty, the boon of the sonl, first budded and 
 bloomed and fruited on these Western shores. 
 Nowhere else under heaven's cope is it en- 
 joyed in its fullness to-day. There is a vast 
 difference between religious liberty and tolera- 
 tion. In other lands 'tis true that each one 
 may worship God under his own vine and fig- 
 tree, but provided always that he pays his 
 church-rate for its support. 
 
 Here we enjoy voluntaryism to the full — 
 here religious opinion and practice are uncir- 
 cumscribed. 
 
 We thank God for this union thanksgiving 
 service to-day, in which Christian denomina- 
 tions, differing widely in many things, can 
 come together in Christian fellowship and find 
 a platform broad enough upon which all can 
 stand. Here, joining hands and voices, we 
 can sing : 
 
 " Blest be the tie that binds 
 Our hearts in Christian love," 
 
 without scratching one iota of independency 
 of thought or distinctiveness of practice. We 
 be Methodists, Christians, Presbyterians, Bap- 
 tists, but we be brethren — brethren of one com- 
 mon Lord, children of one common Heavenly 
 Father. Thank God for that ! 
 
 1. We make mention of God's g^oodness 
 in giving abundant harvests. 
 
HE HATH DONE GREAT THINGS. 319 
 
 Since the days of Joseph, the iron duke of 
 Egypt, when "the earth brought forth by 
 handfuls," we have not heard of such an 
 abundance of the cereals as we have now. 
 For every man, woman, and child in these 
 United States and Territories there are stored 
 away in gi^anaries or banked up in well-hooped 
 barrels ten bushels of wheat, to say nothing of 
 corn, oats, rye, rice, and other kinds of grain. 
 Gaunt Famine, we defy thee to try to stalk 
 abroad in our land ! Whatever else may come, 
 of stringency of money, of cold, chill, disease, 
 yet our Heavenly Father has assured us of 
 " our daily bread " for a twelvemonth to come. 
 With the poet we can sing : 
 
 " For me the mine a thousand treasures brings, 
 For me health gushes from a thousand springs ; 
 Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise ; 
 My footstool, earth, my canopy, the skies." 
 
 2. We praise God that our people have 
 been spared the visitation of " tlie pesti- 
 lence that walketh in darkness, and the 
 destruction that vi^asteth at noonday." 
 
 3. Let us rejoice, too, that we have seen 
 the nation pass through political conflicts 
 so safe and so peacefully. Our political 
 Aceldamas have been mostly on paper, having 
 sprung from the inflamed brain of newspaper 
 
320 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 reporters and the fervid imagination of stnmp 
 orators, having literally an ephemeral exis- 
 tence. They are gone — really they never came. 
 
 4. Tvirning* our thoughts for a moment 
 from the political to the theological 
 realm, let us he thankful that we find so 
 much soundness here. 
 
 There is an increasing demand for the " old 
 paths," and a welcome to him who relates the 
 "old truths." The overwhelming verdict of 
 the denominations is this : " Having drunk the 
 old wine upon which our fathers fed and were 
 nourished, strengthened, sustained, they do not 
 desire the new vintage, saying, ^ The old is 
 better.'" 
 
 True enough, stars are now and then break- 
 ing away from their orbits and wandering in 
 theological space, but how quickly they are 
 blotted from the firmament by their sister 
 orbs ! 
 
 If men will insist on drinking from the 
 poisoned wells of French philosophy and Grer- 
 man rationalism, and then watering with these 
 streams their pulpits and congregations, thank 
 Grod they are short-lived and their end is sure ! 
 If men will persist in lifting their heads along 
 this line, then the Christian consensus has the 
 nerve to apply the heroic treatment, and am- 
 putation, yea, decapitation, quickly follows. 
 
HE HATH DONE GEEAT THINGS. 321 
 
 While the denominations differ widely on 
 many minor subjects, yet there is an elbow- 
 touch, as the French say. Many hearts and 
 one beat concerning the great doctrines of the 
 inspiration of the Scriptures, salvation by 
 grace, the everlasting punishment of the lost, 
 and atonement for sin through the death of 
 Jesus Christ. 'Tis "the old ship of Zion" 
 that is so popular, and " her Captain, Judah's 
 Lion," in whose line the people want to sail. 
 Our fathers made the voyage in this stanch 
 old craft, and our grandfathers; and we, the 
 grandchildren, take passage too, rather than 
 risk ourselves in the balloon of some nebulous 
 aeronaut as he sets sail for the aerial regions 
 " where lie the desolated heavens of the oblit- 
 erated gods." 
 
 The limits of this occasion forbid that I con- 
 tinue longer the enumeration of the favors of 
 a beneficent Father. It only remains to be 
 urged that while we enjoy these blessings to 
 the full — ^blessings of health, wealth, peace, free- 
 dom, civil and religious — and are glad, let us 
 not forget to give practical, substantial proofs 
 of our gladness. "While we look with satisfac- 
 tion at our bank-accounts, our well-loaded 
 tables, the glow of health upon the cheeks of 
 our sons and daughters, our bodies clad in 
 silks, broadcloths, and furs, our cellars well 
 
322 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 stored with fuel, let us not forget the poor — 
 God's poor. " Freely ye have received, freely 
 give." " He that giveth to the poor lendeth to 
 the Lord." " The poor ye always have with 
 you, and whensoever ye will ye may do them 
 good." 
 
 This is a day in which to do them good. My 
 brother, a barrel of flour, a ton of coal, a strong 
 pair of shoes, a warm overcoat, a few dollars 
 in money, a fat turkey with the concomitants, 
 will cause the widow's heart to sing for joy, 
 and she with us will catch up this refrain of 
 the text and join in the chorus with gladder 
 voice than we: "The Lord hath done great 
 things for us ; whereof we are glad." 
 
 TIMELY THOUGHTS. 
 
 Our Benefits. — Every hour, every circum- 
 stance, brings some lesson, some benefit, from 
 God. Every hour, every circumstance, there- 
 fore, should carry with it some tribute of our 
 gratitude. Peculiar mercies should receive 
 peculiar acknowledgments. Every morning's 
 comforts should draw forth every morning's 
 praise. Every evening's mercies should excite 
 every evening's gratitude. Every day should 
 be a thanksgiving da}^ Our whole life should 
 be a life of praise. — Stevenson'^ 
 
TIMELY THOUGHTS. 323 
 
 The Glory of the Country. — It is the glory 
 of our republic that in it the Bible lies open, 
 and the churches and schools are so nearly free 
 that no one is necessarily deprived of their 
 advantages. If we aspire to be still more 
 glorious as a country in the future, we must 
 guard our Sabbaths, our Bible, and our schools. 
 If we guard the churches and the schools 
 well we need not 
 
 " Heed the skeptic's hands 
 While near the school the church spire stands, 
 Nor fear the blinded bigot's rule 
 WTiile near the church spire stands the school." 
 
 Let us, by the help of God, try to make 
 great and successful efforts to establish right- 
 eousness everywhere through this fair land. 
 If our people live according to the divine 
 philosophy of life this great republic will not 
 only increase in numbers, prestige, and power, 
 but will become a greater blessing to the hu- 
 man race in the future than it has been in the 
 past. — J, G. Oakley^ D.D. 
 
 Thoughts for Thanksgiving- Day. — 
 Thanksgiving is the flower of gratitude which 
 has its roots in love. There is such a thing 
 as thanksgiving in words only ; but this, be- 
 ing a dead form observed in obedience to com- 
 mon customs, may proceed from the lips of 
 one whose heart is a stagnant pool of ingrati- 
 
324 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS. 
 
 tude. Thankful speech is not necessarily 
 thankfulness. It may be the language of mere 
 thoughtlessness, or it may be the expression 
 of conscious or unconscious hypocrisy. In 
 such cases it fails to benefit the character of 
 him who offers it, and since it takes the name 
 of God in vain, it must, like Cain's sacrifice, 
 be offensive to the Grod of all mercies. To be 
 profitable to the worshiper and acceptable to 
 the Unseen but All- seeing One, thanksgiving 
 must be the expression of a heart swelling 
 with those grateful emotions which nothing 
 but love can beget. " Love," says a quaint 
 old divine, " makes all our services acceptable ; 
 it is the musk that perfumes them." — Selected, 
 Giving Thanks alvrays for all Things, — 
 Is it saying too much to affirm that this pre- 
 cept contains the key to a joyous Christian 
 life ? It suggests a habit both of the mind and 
 heart — a mind trained to perceive a gift of God 
 in everything, a heart quick to praise God for 
 whatever the mind sees as coming from him. 
 Living in this spirit one's life becomes a con- 
 stant hymn. Every mercy, no matter how 
 commonplace, becomes a note in the music of 
 the heart. A night of peaceful sleep free from 
 pain ; a home protected from disturbance ; the 
 morning's meal; order in the household; the 
 strength to labor ; safety on a journey — every- 
 
TIMELY THOUGHTS. 325 
 
 thing, in short, as events succeed each other 
 through the day, awakens thought, yea, more 
 than a thought — a consciousness of the divine 
 presence, and that thought calls up a grateful 
 " I thank thee. Lord, for this mercy." He who 
 lives thus keeps perpetual thanksgiving day ; 
 and the day of national thanksgiving finds him 
 already possessed of its spirit and prepared to 
 extend the range of his thoughts from his own 
 personal mercies to those which are national. 
 More than this, such a man has the spirit of 
 the life that is to come, and death to him will 
 only be a transition from singing the Lamb in 
 hymns below to singing of his glory in a nobler 
 strain in the choir above. — Christian Advocate. 
 Patriotism and Keligion. — Patriotic sen- 
 timent is good ; religious fervor is better. Al- 
 legiance to native land is praiseworthy ; alle- 
 giance to God is unspeakably more worthy of 
 praise. We love our country, for we enjoy 
 under her protection the liberties which make 
 us a great and happy people ; but let us not 
 forget that we owe to God every blessing — 
 even our political liberties. Noble is it for 
 men to take their stand bravely for the right 
 in times of peril ; the highest possible nobility 
 is reached when we stand fearlessly in a selfish 
 world for God and his righteousness. 
 
 — J, A. Lippincott^ D.D, 
 
326 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 Two Thanksg:ivings. — The beginning of 
 the history of this world was a song ; the end- 
 ing will be a doxology. Between these two 
 thanksgivings was a psean of praise over Beth- 
 lehem's plain that sweetly coupled together the 
 old and the new dispensations. The secret of 
 all rational contentment is thanksgiving ; and 
 "godliness with contentment is great gain." 
 . . . Eejoice to-day ; there are clouds and tears, 
 but there is also a bow. Be still ; be thankful, 
 cheerful, and glad. ..." His name shall en- 
 dure forever : his name shall be continued as 
 long as the sun : and men shall be blessed in 
 him : all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed 
 be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only 
 doeth wondi-ous things. And blessed be his 
 glorious name forever : and let the whole earth 
 be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen." 
 Thanksgiving? Surely! Garlands of grati- 
 tude and banners of blessings let us wave be- 
 fore him ! Why 1 For everything give thanks. 
 Praise ye the Lord. — The King'^s Messenger. 
 
 Bible. — " give thanks unto the Lord ; for 
 he is good: for his mercy endureth forever. 
 O give thanks unto the God of gods : for his 
 mercy endureth forever. give thanks to the 
 Lord of lords : for his mercy endureth forever. 
 "Who remembered us in our low estate : for his 
 mercy endureth forever. And hath redeemed 
 
SUGGESTIVE THEMES. 327 
 
 US from our enemies : for his mercy endnretli 
 forever. O give thanks unto the Grod of 
 heaven : for his mercy endureth forever." (Ps. 
 cxxxvi. 1-3, 23, 24, 26.)— Stevenson, 
 
 SUGGESTIVE THEMES. 
 
 Seed-time and Harvest. Matt. xiii. 3. 
 
 Past Mercies a Pledge of Future Good. Psalm cxv. 12. 
 
 Abundant Provision. Psalm cxlv. 16. 
 
 Divine Forces in Human History. Psalm xcvii. 1, 2. 
 
 Christian Civilization. Prov. xii. 26. 
 
 The Divine Conditions of Nationality. Ezek. xx. 6. 
 
 Heavenly Gifts. Psalm cxvi. 13. 
 
 David's Thanksgiving. 1 Chron. xxix. 10-19. 
 
 Eestoring the Years which the Canker-worm has Eaten. 
 
 Joel ii. 25. 
 The Glory of the Country. Ezek. xxv. 9. 
 A Kingly Year. Psalm Ixv. 11. 
 
 The Goodness of God in Little Things. Psalm xxxiii. 5. 
 God's Great-heartedness. Matt. ix. 13 ; Hosea vi. 6. 
 Politics for Christians. Matt. xxii. 21. 
 A Lesson for Harvest. Hosea ii. 21, 22. 
 The Sin of Ingratitude. Luke xvii. 17. 
 Eebuilding Waste Places. Isa. liii. 12. 
 The Wonderful Works of God are to be Remembered. 
 
 Psalm cxi. 4, 
 Happy Homes. Luke ii. 51. 
 The Commandment with Promise. Exod. xx. 12. 
 Repairing Breaches. Isa. liii. 12. 
 National Blessings. Psalm cxlvii. 20. 
 Temporal Prosperity Follows Duty. Isa. Iviii. 14. 
 The Lord's Dinner. John xxi. 12. 
 The Nation Strengthened. Zech. i. 16. 
 Gladness of Completed Work. Isa. ix. 3. 
 
328 THANKSGIVING SERMONS. 
 
 SUGGESTIVE TEXTS. 
 
 All are yours. 1 Cor. iii. 22. 
 
 The Lord is good to all : and Ms tender mercies are over a'U 
 
 his works. Psalm cxlv. 9. 
 I am a citizen of no mean country. Acts xxi. 39. 
 He hath not dealt so with any nation, etc. Psalm cxlvii. 20. 
 Come and dine. John. xxi. 12. 
 I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth ; and 
 
 the earth shall hear the com, and the wine, and the oil. 
 
 Hosea ii. 21, 22. 
 Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every 
 
 living thing. Psalms cxlv. 16. 
 ^Th e Lord reigneth ; let the earth rejoice ; let the multitude 
 
 of isles be glad thereof, etc. Psalm xcvii. 1, 2. 
 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, etc. 
 
 Psalm evii. 8. 
 Thus saith the Lord; I am returned to Jerusalem with 
 
 mercies, etc. Zech. i. 16. 
 Happy is that people, that is in such a case : yea, happy is 
 
 that people, whose God is the Lord. Psalm cxliv. 15. 
 My soul desired the first ripe fruit. Mieah vii. 1. 
 Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send, etc. 
 
 Neh. viii. 10. 
 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts 
 
 with praise : be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 
 
 Psalm c. 4. 
 Thou art good, and doest good. Psalm cxix. 68. 
 Thy kingdom come. Matt. vi. 10. 
 
 Thou crownest the year with thy goodness. Psalm Ixv. 11. 
 The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon 
 
 them that fear him, etc. Psalm ciii. 17. 
 My Father is the husbandman. John xv. 1. 
 Delight thyself in the Lord ; and I will cause thee to ride 
 
 upon the high places of the earth. Isa. Iviii. 14. 
 i The glory of the country. Ezek. xxv. 9. 
 
SUGGESTIVE TEXTS. 329 
 
 I desired mercy, and not sacrifice. Hosea vi. 6 ; Matt. ix. 13. 
 He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered. 
 
 Psalm cxi. 4. 
 They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest. Isa. 
 
 ix. 3. 
 / O give thanks imto the Lord ; for he is good : for his mercy 
 
 endureth forever. Psalm cxxxvi. 1. 
 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. John 
 
 XV. 8. 
 The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Psalm xxxiii. 5. 
 Behold, a sower went forth to sow. Matt. xiii. 3. 
 A land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and 
 
 honey, which is the glory of all lands. Ezek. xx. 6. 
 The Lord hath been mindful of us : he will bless us. Psalm 
 
 cxv. 12. 
 Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glo- 
 rious name. 1 Chron. xxix. 13. 
 ^- He hath not dealt so with any nation. Psalm cxlvii. 20. 
 High above all nations which he hath made in praise, and in 
 
 name, and in honor. Deut. xxvi. 19. 
 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, etc. 
 C^ James i. 17. 
 
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