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Show fi QgJl-, i rr : M . 1 "h4 ,'3 ivV MKftiiK festival of harvest time j Is upon us. We are antl'cl-M antl'cl-M patiiiff tlie good fellowship ' I and the prospect of the i happy reunions which are rSA accompaniments of this an- Pi ) nua' celebration. Perhaps,! :!i ' then, it will not he amiss if we dwell a little upon the deeper significance of Thanka- ElvinR. It Is always an interesting adventure adven-ture and often profitable to trace a word back to its derivation, and a very cursory research with the aid of a dictionary will reveal to us the sus;;estive 1'act that the words "thanks" and "think" have a common origin. The former, indeed, Is an obsolete ob-solete form of the latter, and required only in course of time and usage its special significance of pleased or grateful thinking. With this In niind we may turn to a passage In the letter which Paul wrote to the Christians In Philippi of Macedonia a letter which is keyed to a high note of spiritual rejoicing, Hnd breathes throughout the gladness which should mark the life attuned to the purpose of God. You will find It in what we call the fourth chapter, In the farewell words addressed by Paul to his friends. We quote from Doctor Goodspeed's translation of the New Testament: "Have no anxiety ubout anything, but make all your wants known unto God in prayer and entreaty, with thanksgiving. Then through your union with Christ, Jesus, the peace of God, so far above any 'human thought, will guard your mind and thoughts. Now brothers let your minds dwell on what Is true, what is worthy, what is right, what is pure, what is amiable, what is kindly on everything every-thing that is excellent or praiseworthy. . . . Then God who gives peace will be wltlt you." It is at once apparent that Paul understood the intimate relation between be-tween "thinking'' and "thanking." His admonition for the thoughtful life Is manifestly the underlying basis for the thankful life. And the tliar.kfui life Is the assurance of the guard-. guard-. log and companioning peace of God. Paul sots forth the tilings upon which 'our minds should dwell the true, the worthy, the right, the pure. the amiable or lovely, the kindly. In his philosophy It was vitally important impor-tant that our minds should be occupied oc-cupied with such thoughts as these. He understood, as we are understanding understand-ing better today, that what Is in a man's thinking will determine the character of bis life. He understood, also, that in order to keep one's thinking think-ing on a high and wholesome plane there must be effort and discipline. It was not easy li Paul's day .to do this. The world in which he lived was superficially, provocative of much j bitter, evil and unclean thought. In a city like Philippi there would be many things happening to the Christian Chris-tian and many things under his observation obser-vation to evoke thinking on the baser level. Even In this, joyous letter he felt It necessary to warn his friends with tears against those whose "appetites "appe-tites are their god; who glory In their shame, and who are absorbed In earthly matters." ' It Is not easy In our day to follow Paul's i Instruction and example for he practiced splendidly his own teaching. teach-ing. What we do not actually see In the happening is brought to us in the news columns of the daily press things that are evil, indecent, ugly, cruel. We cannot wholly ignore these things; Paul did not in his day. When necessary he spoke frankly of them, calling a spade a spade. In his letters. let-ters. They are part of the world In which we live of the world wp must help. Hut our effort must be to discipline dis-cipline our thinking so that they will not flood and overwhelm our minds, excluding or submerging thought of better and finer things. Even more difficult, perhaps. Is It to escape the peril of those "who are absorbed in earthly matters." The tide of materialism Is strongly set against the influences of the spiritual. Unless the channel is kept clear which admits the flow of God's thought we will find ohrselves presently with minds incapable of grasping His purposes pur-poses and principles, with mindswhloh cannot meditate happily upon His truth or which will not respond to what Is right and pure alid lovely. The possibility of the thankful life, of the life which knows the comrade-skip comrade-skip of the God of peace, will be lost to us. This life of right thinking and glad thanks Is the appreciative life. Go to your dictionary again. To "appreciate" "ap-preciate" means to "set a value." The man who has adopted God's standards of values, who sees the true and the good and tire lovely and lovable as the worthwhile and abiding things, Is the real appreclator, and for him there will always be occasion for the grateful grate-ful thinking which Is" thanks. If you fiud little of It In your mind today there Is something wrong with your standard of vadues. You are erring in the practice of "appreciation." "apprecia-tion." You have set your heart upon things that are unworthy, temporary, Illusory, and they are disappointing you. Take Paul's recipe. Begin to think about all that Is excellent and praiseworthy. praise-worthy. Take your mind out of the material shadows and Into the sunlight sun-light of God's thought and love. Make your wants known to Him. The spirit of thanksgiving will enter your soul, and the "peace of God, so far above any human thought,", will come to strnd "guard" at your mind's gateway. gate-way. And so on this Thanksgiving day let all good Americans give thanks In spirit to the ' Pilgrims of Plymouth Keck; for turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie: for their heroic struggle for fr edom, and for their successful suc-cessful demonstatlon that their new land could be made to yield a living. For the specialties served up at all good Thanksgiving dinners, Americans Ameri-cans must bow to that friendly old Italian, Massasoit. It was he who Introduced In-troduced the cranberry and the pumpkin pump-kin to the American people through the Pilgrims. Massasoit may have I been a poor uneducated savage, but j be and his people had a delightfully simple and fairly efficient agricultural system: Corn In the hill and a climbing climb-ing bean; a pumpkin seed every five hills. Massasoit showed the Pilgrims the cranberry growing wild In the marshes, and had no difficulty whatever what-ever in demonstrating that roast turkey tur-key and cranberry sauce was an unbeatable un-beatable combination. The Pilgrims, of course, knew all about turkeys, which had been taken across ' seas from Mexico and had become common on Kuglish farms before the year 1G0O. P,ut It was the friendly Indian who as impresario brought together for the first time on any stage those three Thanksgiving stars turkey cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. |