Show OUR GREAT FESTIVAL by ELLEN FOSTER STONE ND now we meet on common ground let s ex hect unanimity while we consider thanksgiving pg day what is now our national festival of thanksgiving was inaugurated as we remember by the pilgrim fa at the end of their first year as pioneers in praise and gratt tude for blessing they openly gave thanks what a years year s toil and privation meant to them we will not try to picture but at its end we know they corn cam mem orated all in a day of thanks for the harvest which was theirs for the earth had brought forth her increase and they were glad and tor for that first thanksgiving day we should now give thanks it was much a factor in preserving blessings to LS of today are we not content to believe then and believing to show in acts that the spirit of our thanksgiving day should animate the doings of all our days we are told you know that when all the people praise thee then shall the earth bring forth her in crease from this we learn that the earth brings forth her increase as a result of the operation cooperation co oo between man and his maker thus we find man praising before the increase comes for this increase comes at the end of toil and labor so then work is praise some decry the modern com memora tion of thanksgiving day saying the spirit and significance the original in tent Is lost now in frolicsome forget falness the day runs to sports and i merrymaking Is it not better and happier to feel j is but the ex pres slon only that la Is changed not lost and this like other changes has come to us as the sum of mans achieving skill in making possible the many avenues for recreation this in itself Is cause again tor for thanks giving there Is always cause for thanks giving and chief among the causes is this very one that we ge have reached a state in life rewe have time to play a little we grown ups need our playtimes just as the children need their toys so when we see hurrying throngs on pleasure bent on our na dional thanksgiving day Is it not true we catch the spirit of their whole some happiness 7 9 Is this not better to believe than that the day is de graded from its original intent or ideala we should let the memory of those early fathers strengthen our hearts and characters and help us to be gracious hosts to those pilgrims still who come to them as to those earlier comers this is a land of prom ise and hope cope no fairer compliment can a man pay a land than to leave his home for it and no fairer corn com aliment can we as hosts extend than to have our house in order to receive our guests the lures and snares that might cripple and engulf them we should banish keeping our standard lean and high our guests must strive to honor it and that we of today may welcome and aid in shaping these neu newcomers comers into noble self helping cit eizens should give us cause for thanks giving and happily in this work of model ing by example we each can aid for education Is largely imitation fol lowing the word and art of another so the small child the middle aged child the adult and the aged each can have a part in this thanksgiving mak Ir idge gathis this standard chere is ao 0 o much tota thankful for not only for the earth earths a increase but for everything that comee of good or ill for we may thus bind the good in our hearts and work to eliminate the ill L lets t s think mothers dear of a mare few more things for which we may be thankful for the broiling smiling faces of children the touch of baby fingers for the sights that please us the sounds that soothe us the hands that serve us tor for the workers seen and unseen whose labors lend to our comfort for ears to hear eyes to see and strength to speed us thanksgiving for the stretch of woodland the valleys and the hills for the art in nature that causes a stream to pursue its sinuous course rather than the straight line I 1 for the glisten of the plumage ol 01 birds and their sweet throated notes A ai matins or at eventide for the beauty and wonder and vista of thought opened by a polished sculpt ared column of shimmering marble its journey from the quarry to the dome it supports the road builders bu ilden the vehicles of transportation and they who conduct the traffic all al i these represent uncounted toil and ability and genius of the tools witt which all these are fashioned and the skill directing them for all these works wrought and tor for the workers thanksgiving for the blessings of the present thanksgiving they come to us as fruitage of the blessings of the past for the of the israelites tor for the selling of joseph into egypt for david and goliath for the light from nazareth tor for the doubts of thomas for all these thanksgiving are they not blue prints or charts for character building 7 do we not see in these stories of old parallels dally daily we wander and disobey we repent and are blessed too often turning again forgetful and often does not the going of ou our josephs down into egypt found our future prosperity and happiness we mothers know the anguish of bitter parting whose clouds are but screen ing coming light and daily do we little davids not meet our stalking disdaining but surrender ing if we are valiant and use the weapons we know best would you believe there is really so much to be thankful fora yes for the cords that bind us the trials that shape us for our present day comforts and conveniences with all these tor for which to be thankful how can we go heavily about our work because of the evils that beset true enough but for their realization we should be thankful tor for it Is only so that we re recognizing may work to banish and that is our present work that less of wrong shall confront those who come after Is our desire and greatest of all things for which we may be thankful Is friendship it shall bring our souls singing into end less day for that being Is blessed who finds from cut the world the true heart ct a friend |