» ,j^'r^0^\%^^'^^, '^ -^^ v.^ A V'' ..-^ ,^ .%.;r^^r/.-^ o5 -^c*- ^ % o^■ '^^ ,^>^' •s*^' .:■ A* » "^A v^' *;:'mi/^^ .a\^ ^-r » ■<<- ^^ ' , c^'V ^*. ^•^- '■i- ,#' ,.^^ - C^, o^- '. THE APOSTLE 183 so much like Himself that life has more joy when they receive appreciation. Their joy will be richer if we can tell them that they are the Lord's gifts to us and can repeat to them this apostolic word, '*I thank my God upon every remembrance of you." THANKSGIVING FOR INNER STRENGTH Text: *^For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And Eg said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee,"— 2 Cok. xii, 8-9a. This is the holiday which calls us to re- count God's benefits. Our tendency is to put the stress upon certain outer events or gifts. Even though we recognize the pri- macy of the spirit, the body makes its clam- orous demands. Its needs are of the open and dramatic sort, so much so that it is ever easier to make appeal in their behalf. San Francisco and Messina do not wait long for supplies for the body; nor do those stricken by earthquake, fire, and tidal wave fail to respond with earnest gratitude. But sup- 184 THE APOSTLE 185 plies for the higher life come more slowly. In spite of our lofty intent we must often confess ourselves guilty of materialism. This is not so much because our theory of life is astray as because the needs of the spirit lie more or less hidden. It is not so easy for many men to see the reality of the hunger and thirst after righteousness as it is for them to see the reality of bodily want. This type of blindness as to life's deeper needs naturally shows itself in relation to life's deeper gifts. The fact that this Thanksgiving Day comes at the close of the harvest season should not, of course, lead us to assume that jimericans care more for the fruits of the earth than they do for the fruits of the spirit. Any such sweeping indictment needs to be guarded. Yet perhaps a per- sonal review of your feelings, as you have approached this holiday, might not be spir- itually flattering. Upon what gifts have you put the emphasis ? Do you thank God at the 186 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS table oftener than you thank Him at some spiritual altar? Have your thoughts thus far this day dealt mostly with gifts that are imparted directly to the soul? These are questions that probe to the center. They give us this day's revelation of ourselves. St. Paul suggests a direction in which we may look for a deeper form of gratitude. The thought is an old one ; but it has special significance for the Thanksgiving season. Had the apostle confined his search to his body, reasons for gratitude would have been offset. He would have remembered pains that racked and limitations that fretted. He might have recalled hours in which he agon- ized. But St. Paul had a peculiar way of fleeing to a spiritual refuge. He did just that in this instance. Finding disorder in his body, he moved up into his own soul. There he found the grace of God. So did he come to ascribe glory and give thanks. Let us note the splendid reality of the apos- tle's gratitude. THE APOSTLE 187 Were it not for tlie fact that we are all moved by a greater or less element of curi- osity, it would be easy for ns to smile as we see others prying into insignificant ques- tions. St. Paul had a way of keeping things to himself. He passed through a spiritual experience, concerning which he said nothing for fourteen years; and he passed through a physical experience, about which he never gave any details. His splendid reticence seems to have piqued commentators and Bible readers into an eager curiousness ; and much time and effort have been spent in la- bored attempts Ito gain Paul's secret and to find out what ''the thorn in the flesh" was. The many theories advanced are in them- selves evidences that the inquiry is vain. No one knows what Paul's affliction was. Some have said that it was a deformity of personal appearance ! Others have held that it was a case of weak eyes, aggravated and made chronic by the blinding light that shone above the Damascus road! Others, again, 188 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS have supposed that it was an impediment in his speech which greatly hindered his public work! Yet others have held that it was a tendency to epilepsy which kept the busy apostle in constant fear! And still others have held that the energetic missionary was subject to nervous prostration— in which case he would surely have many modern sym- pathizers ! This list by no means exhausts the sup- positions that have been brought forward. Any one of them may be true; or they may all be false. Our ignorance gives us the wide advantage of general comfort to all sufferers rather than the narrow advantage of special comfort to a class of sufferers. With the record as it stands, we are not likely to lose our thought upon one kind of affliction. This much, then, and only this much, do we know : Paul was compelled to endure a grievous and bitter weakness. It weighed heavily upon his heart and impeded his work. He prayed with earnestness that this 'Hhorn in THE APOSTLE 189 the flesli" which kept pricking and torment- ing him might be removed. A second and a third time he offered the same petition. But the wearing pain did not cease. The thorn did not depart; nor did it lose its sharpness and its sting. Yet it would be farthest from the truth to say that Paul's prayers were dis- regarded. Nor would it be correct to affirm that he received only a reflex benefit from his petitions. Paul's prayers were heard; Paul's prayers were answered. Instead of paying heed to the plea by removing the thing, God paid heed to it by renewing the man. Instead of changing Paul's thorn, God changed Paul's spirit. You will at once see how suggestive this is. Paul had said: *^0 Lord, let this buffeting thorn in my flesh de- part. It worries me. It interferes with my happiness. It hinders my work. I beseech Thee, remove it.'' But the divine answer was: **No! The thorn shall remain. But you yourself shall be strengthened. I will pour My help in upon your life, and I will 190 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS make you strong enongli to endure your hardships." This was the answer; and how divine it was, and how glorious the effect upon the life, we will all do well to observe and appreciate. The time came when the apostle thanked God for the deeper gift of grace and for his power of spiritual resist- ance. The divine method adopted in St. Paul's case is still used. More doubtless than we are in the habit of thinking. God is answer- ing our prayers, and so calling for our grati- tude, not by removing our difficulties, but by making us equal to them. This idea must be many times forced upon us all. It must often come to us in connection with our own circle of friends. Our minds go up and down the streets and stop at various houses. We find that there are not many, perhaps indeed none, in which there is full freedom from some serious affliction. To be sure, the joys are in the larger portion, and our prayers would be more appropriately charged with THE APOSTLE 191 gratitude than with petition. But, after all, the most of the homes bear a difficulty, a trial, a sickness from which they would gladly be delivered. In most of these cases our friends have prayed that the trying thing might be re- moved. Once, twice, thrice, yea, many, many times they have said: '^0 God, lift this weight. Eemove this burden. Cure this sickness. Drive away this trial." But the weight, the burden, the sickness, the trial, have not departed ; it may be that they have increased in heaviness and bitterness. But applying the matter to you, who are in this Thanksgiving service, it may be justly said that you have been patient and courageous. In your patience and courage may be seen God's answer to your prayers, and your own reason for gratitude. For this thing you have prayed the Lord that it might depart from you. But He has said, '^Mj grace is sufficient." This is not simply a Pauline experience; it is a Christian experience. It 192 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS is as frequent and effective in this year as it was in the year 60, Yet for all this it is tme that our super- ficial thought and desire are apt to prefer the method of removal. Sometimes this method seems so much the simpler, and the solution so much the easier. Why not have the thorn out and be done with it? "Why endure the fret and torment through the months or years? The answer, in most gen- eral terms, is that while we are prone to put emphasis upon happiness, God puts the em- phasis upon character. Undoubtedly the ideal of many men would be a world from which all evil and difficulty would be ban- ished. But the ideal of God is a world in which men will be able to resist evil and dif- ficulty. We put the stress upon things; God puts it upon men. Paul's desire is to have the thorn subtracted; God's desire is to have the manhood added. These contrasts state the two methods and give us fully the thought of the apostle's language and experience. THE APOSTLE 193 Our poor dreams, however, are very per- sistent. We all have our thoughts of a per- fect world. Such perfection is quite likely to consist of a full freedom from grave diffi- culties. As it is now, matters often seem to be strangely out of harmony. The coal that we need for heat is buried beneath the moun- tains, and we must work in darkness and damp in order to release the black servant from its prison. The soil that men need for the production of food is pre-empted by vigorous weeds and so mingled with rocks, stones, and roots that we must ever with plow, hoe, and rake fight against its stub- bornness. The lumber that we need for the making of our houses resists with its tough- ness man's attempts to use it, and submits only when men compel it into service. Even the gracious rivers hinder man's progress, and he must labor hard to make a bridge; for natural bridges are few. Seeing that there is need of such great labor, it is scarcely astonishing that we 13 194 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS should be struck with surprise. "Why is not the needed coal more accessible? "Why is not the soil more tractable? Why is not the lumber more manageable? Why do not bridges made by the divine hand span every hindering river? Why all the strange diffi- culties? But think a moment! Are we not laying all the stress upon things— accessible coal, tractable soil, pliable lumber, ready- made bridges? We can conceive that some dreaming enthusiast should pray: *^0 Lord, remove these hindrances. They impede our work. Give us an easier chance. Then shall we be truly grateful. ' ' But we all feel fairly certain that the prayer would be unavailing as to its direct purpose. God would answer : '^My grace is sufficient for thee. You want a continent without a desert, a stone, or a weed. I want men with industry, with re- sources, with inventive power. I want ac- cessible men, tractable men, pliable men, nat- ural men.'^ It is thus evident that the methods of God THE APOSTLE 195 are not in harmony with our superficial thought of things. And there is, at any rate, just enough of difference in the conditions of men to give us a vital proof as to the ef- fectiveness of the divine plan. Everywhere men must enter into something of a struggle with unwilling nature. But this struggle varies in its intensity. Where the climate is severe, without being fierce and overpow- ering, there do we find the most capable races. It is easier, and in a sense pleasanter, to live in the tropics than it is to live in the temperate zones. To dwell where man needs no house barricaded against the biting winds, and where perennially the earth blossoms with flowers and the trees hang with luscious fruits, would seem a delight. But the fixed fact of history is that the stronger men do not come from the softer climates. They rather come out of the middle north, where the breezes are sharp and man becomes hardy and strong through his continuous struggle. The Quaker poet touches beauti- 196 THANKSGIVING SERMONS fully on this idea in Ms lines, ''For an Autumn Festival:" God gives us with our rugged soil The power to make it Eden-fair, And richer fruits to crown our toil Than summer wedded islands bear. Who murmurs at his lot to-day ? Who scorns his native flower and bloom? Or sighs for dainties far away, Beside the bounteous board at home ? Thank Heaven, instead, that Freedom's arm Change a rocky soil to gold, — That brave and generous lives can warm A clime with Northern ices cold. And let these altars, wreathed with flowers And piled with fruits, awake again Thanksgivings for the golden hours. The early and the latter rain." * So if the children of the tropics can thank God for a life of balm, the children of the North can thank Him for a vast compen- sation. * Household Edition, p. 2G0. THE APOSTLE 197 May not all this be taken as showing forth the wisdom of God's plan and the jus- tice of our gratitude? He does not deliver men from difficulties ; He strengthens men to meet difficulties. His method is not that of deliverance, but that of strength. In this respect we often follow God's way. What makes the sailor? Is it the easy process of lying on the deck and feeling the pleasant winds of the sea as they play about his face I Is it freedom from storm and darkness? Nay, rather it is climbing aloft amid the rig- ging when the ocean is mad, when winds blow, when the ship heaves with the billows, and the great masts creak and groan ! This makes the sailor— not the absence of diffi- culties, but the conquest of difficulties. Our mistaken plea might be for a life without a hindrance or a difficulty; God's plea is for a man with fortitude and perseverance. In our better times we come to adopt and to honor the divine way. We must all have wondered, too, at the 198 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS decision and persistence that are necessary in order that man may come to any conquest in knowledge. We must spend about one- third of life in study before we are highly educated. Ten years are spent in primary and grammar school, four years in prepara- tory school, four in college, and three or four in the professional school. Ere we know it, one-third or more of our life is gone. It is scarcely to be wondered that young persons grow discouraged at the long outlook and that the most of them drop their studies at an early age. "We have all wished that there was a royal road to geometry ; that the limbs of the tree of knowledge did not grow so high ; that we might, at any rate, be relieved of the mental struggles and difficulties that lie in the way to an exact education. We might imagine some man with a genuine thirst for knowledge offering this prayer: *^0 God, my poor mind must crawl toward knowledge. The effort is long and hard. Deliver me from these tiying efforts. Work THE APOSTLE 199 within me a mental miracle. By a quick revelation equip me for life's work and pour something of Thine infinite truth into my mind." Sure we are that to a man of this spirit God would give no answer according to the man's request. For this thing the man might pray the Lord that his ignorance should depart from him. But the Lord would say, ^ ' My grace is sufficient for thee. ' ' And more than one young man who trembled at the thought of intellectual toil has found himself not made sufficient without it, but made sufficient for it, and has come out to active life altogether stronger, more self- reliant, and far more self-respecting than he would have been if the difficulties had been removed rather than the strength imparted and accepted. Our dawdling desire might call for a made-to-order brain, crammed with knowledge all labeled and ready for use. But God's method calls for a man, with men- tal purpose, with plodding mind, with solid thoughts whose getting has required man- 200 THANKSGIVINa SEEMONS hood, and whose getting has also made more manhood. If God has given ns grace to work in this spirit, we have abundant reason for gratitude. Plainly now, it is true enough that in our moral lives God will not forsake His usual methods. It may be that some of us would ask for a heart without doubts, with auto- matic morality, with machine-like holiness. But God does not have it so. He would have men with doubts, with moral struggles, with intense strivings after holiness. Mr. Huxley, as quoted by Mr. Drummond, says, ^*I pro- test that if some great Power would agree to make me always think what is true and do what is right, on condition of being turned into a sort of clock and wound up every morning, I should instantly close with the offer." These words may show a great moral desire, but they certainly do not show any great moral heroism. Our own stand- ards of admiration will convince us of their weakness. THE APOSTLE 201 Here are two men. One of tliem is slow, phlegmatic, quiet, passionless. By very na- ture he takes things easy. You may admire him and speak well of his constancy and of his easy morality. But here is another man, who is quick, active, full of passion. He often wishes that he were not so. It may be that he has sometimes prayed that these moral thorns might depart. He has looked upon the life of his quiet brother and has almost envied his apparently natural good- ness. If it be that we find this second man true, holding a controlling hand over his quick and passionate nature, he is more worthy of admiration, yea, and more repre- sentative of divine helpfulness, than is the first man. We protest, therefore, that if some great Power were to offer an immedi- ate and clock-like goodness, we would in- stantly reject the offer. We can well thank God for the privilege of earnest co-operation with Him, by the grace of Christ and under the leadership of His Spirit, in working out our characters. 202 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS It may be that we have wished that we might have freedom from the irksome duties of the every-day. Perhaps none of us have been bold enough to come to God and ask Him that our hard tasks might depart; for we have felt that such a petition would be ignoble. We can readily imagine that there would be something charming and delight- ful in full deliverance from certain vexing labors. But there is a greater thing than this full deliverance. Is it not greater and better to hear God say: *^I can not send away your duties. But I will help you to be true to them. My grace is sufficient." If we have gone to our work and have put patient hands upon it for the day, the month, the year, be- ing faithful to every trust, and loyal to every demand, surely there is with us a peace of heart that is the essence of gratitude. This special aspect of Thanksgiving Day gains emphasis from a knowledge of its be- ginning. When, after the first harvest gath- ered by the New England colonists in 1621, THE APOSTLE 203 Governor Bradford made provision for a day of praise, his word came to men and women who had known hardship. Their loved ones had been stricken with disease; their numbers had been decreased by death ; their efforts had been stubbornly resisted by the rocky soil and the bleak winds of the Atlantic Coast ; their safety had been threat- ened by the Indians ; in short, their year had been one of unspeakable struggle. Yet they set for us the precedent of faith. "We have no record of their first thanksgiving prayer; but we know that it might properly have in- cluded mighty praises for the divine grace that had made them sufficient for their toils and privations. If God had not made them miraculous gardens, He had given them pa- tient and skillful hands. If He had not stilled the tempests of winter, He had given them strength to build their homes. If He had not kept disease away from their settle- ment, He had granted the trust that unmur- muringly surrenders the beloved to His holy 204 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS keeping. If He had not tempered the spirits of the savages, He had strengthened the spirits of the Puritans. If those who kept that first Thanksgiving had prayed that the thorns should depart, God had given the deeper answer. Instead of working without merely, He had worked within. In our day it is easy to see that the largest reason of thanksgiving was in the spirits of the people to whom God had said amid all their tribula- tions, "Mj grace is sufficient.'' Nor ought this sermon to close without some reference to the harsh and exceptional things that have come as sharp thorns into your lives. Since last Thanksgiving many of you have known sorrows— sorrows deep and poignant. Had some one told you a year ago of their coming you would not have be- lieved that you could endure them. Yet you are in this service to-day; and your heart, while questioning, is not bitter or rebellious. You thus carry within you the divine answer to your prayer and your own reason for THE APOSTLE 205 gratitude. The good God has not freed you from the hard thing; but He has said, ^^My grace is sufficient." The truth is that God has vast reserves of grace, even as He has given us vast re- serves of receptivity and so vast reserves of endurance. In a physical crisis we are often amazed at our own strength. The impos- sible of ordinary times is the possible of ex- traordinary times. The power must have been ever at command, only hidden and wait- ing for the occasion that should call it forth. Men, too, are often surprised at the power which their minds will show at some critical moment. Thoughts seem to catch fire, argu- ment fastens itself to argument, and the crisis makes us strangely alert. If this oc- curs in spite of singular difficulties, the tri- umph is only the sweeter. In the end we re- joice more because of the work brought to success over obstacles than we rejoice over the work that moved smoothly to its comple- tion. When we are made equal to the heavy 206 TKAXKSamxa SEEMOXS and difficult t-asks, our exnltation is the greater. Onr gratitude should be likewise greater. It is even thus with the spiritual. The trustful man will find that God has endowed Ms nature with an immense fund of spiritual reserve-power. That reserve-power mani- fests itself quite as truly in the enduring of sorrow as in the doing of work. TTe never know what we can stand until the necessity is full upon us ; then G-od makes us equal to the terrible day. To go bravely through with the trial often means more than it would have meant to have missed it altogether. It is a great thing if we can escape the dark den, or if the lions are struck dead in answer to onr cry. It is a greater thing to go in among the roaiing beasts and to come forth unharmed. It is a large thing to escape the mouth of the fiery furnace; it is a gi'eater thing to walk amid the flames with the ^'form of the Fourth" beside us, and to come out at length without the smell of fii'e upon our garments. THE APOSTLE 207 This word applies in a measure to you all. You have this year seen some dark disaster threatening your life— and you have prayed for deliverance. It may be that the deliver- ance came. Perhaps it did not. It was sick- ness that you feared. You said, *^0 God, spare me this suffering." In spite of your prayer the sickness came. The Lord said, ''My grace is sufficient for thee." It was the greater test of divine helpfulness that you should through weeks of pain have been kept patient, steadfast, unmurmuring. It was poverty that you feared. You said, ' ' God, spare me this vexation and worry." God said, ''My grace is sufficient for thee." It was the greater proof of divine aid that you were able to pass without distrustful com- plaint from the place of plenty to the place of want. It may be that it was something more dreaded than sickness or poverty that seemed to approach— even the touch of death laid upon your beloved. Out of the depths you cried: "0 God, spare me this loss. Pity 208 THANKSGIVING SEKMONS me!" God may have answered simply and tenderly, '^My grace is sufficient for thee." His grace in such a sorrow is a token of sym- pathy as well as a fact of help. For all this you may bring praise to God on this Thanks- giving Day. The minor note in your grati- tude need not rob your mood of reality. The power to endure, to resist, to hold steady, is a part of the power of life. The God who gives it is worthy of our worship and love. Even at the peril of seeming to move in a circle of speech and thought, there is a sense in which we may be thankful for thank- fulness. In these pews to-day are gathered friends who have walked this year over stony paths. The fact that you are here as gen- uine participants in this service tells of an inner victory. Your hearts have kept their faith. Driven to the deeper courts of life, you have found sure witnesses of the divine goodness. You may be grateful for your own gratitude. Here now with your loved ones and neighbors you reverently look to THE APOSTLE 209 God and give Him praise for the mercies of the year that outwardly has seemed so barren and unblessed. It is easy enough for the prosperous to utter the common-place of good cheer, easy enough to mention the spir- itual compensations to our afflicted friends. Yet we all know the deeper truth of this Pauline experience. The greater heart is the register of its own triumphs ; it is its own proof of the divine care and aid. The brutish man may not understand; but the children of God know the lesson. They to whose troubled and broken hearts God's voice has spoken, saying, '^Mj grace is suffi- cient,'' may join with us fervently in the keeping of this great Feast of Praise. 14 THANKSGIVING FOR SERVICE Text; ''I thank Him that enabled me, even Christ Jesus our Lord, for that He counted me faithful, appointing me to His service.''—! Tim. i, 12 (R. V.). AVe now stand amid the annual festival of the harvest and the home. The theme of gratitude is to be chief in our thought. It may then be well for us to get hold of some ideas that will lift and regulate our think- ing, making it really high and spiritual. We pause, therefore, before this text and take it as our teacher. It gives us the terms of gratitude. Its first words are, ^^I thank,'' Gratitude must come down at last to the per- sonal unit. Strictly speaking, there can be no such thing as a national Thanksgiving; 210 THE APOSTLE 211 for there can be no real nation except that which is made up of human hearts. Alice in Wonderland came upon the problem as to whether there could be a smile apart from a face. Of course there could not be; for smiles do not hang in the air. So there can not be thankfulness apart from a personal soul. If we have a day worthy to be called a national Thanksgiving, it will be only be- cause individual men among our people unite in one spirit, each man saying *^I thank. '^ The day must not only come down to a personal unit, it must go up at last to a per- sonal end. The first three words of the text are, '^I thank Him." We have here the two parties to the transactions of gratitude— the human and the divine. Thanksgiving is never meaningful and complete till there is just one man and just one God— the one human heart answering with gratitude to the benefits of the one Divine Heart and saying, ^^I thank Him." This gives us the terms of thankfulness. 212 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS but it does not give us its grades. A man may truly say, *^I thank Him," and still keep his gratitude on the earthly plane. It is in- deed significant that from the beginning our formal Thanksgiving Day has been ap- pointed for just after the harvest. The sea- son is eminently appropriate; but it should not be allowed to hold our gratitude down to the ground. There is a grade of gratitude that creeps on the soil ; there is also a grade of gratitude that soars in the sky. This text is valuable because it repre- sents a higher form of thanksgiving. Its phrases are all spiritual. Does Paul write, ^^I thank Him for food, for clothing, for shelter!" No! There are no material terms in the passage. In these words the apostle is found to be absent from the body; he has reached the spirit world. Does he write: ^^I thank Him for friends, for kindly associa- tions, for the homes where I, an itinerant, have been entertained!" No! In other parts of his writings Paul emphasizes these THE APOSTLE 213 things. In tlie Epistle to tlie Philippians he thanks God for their care for his bodily well- being; and in the Epistle to Philemon he thanks God for his friends. He was too real a man and had too real hmnan needs to make light of any of God's good gifts. The height of Paul's gratitude did not destroy its breadth. He was grateful for material bless- ings, grateful for social joys. But in this particular passage he goes beyond these re- gions. He rises above the lowlands— fresh and beautiful as they are; above the hill- crests— bright and serene as they are; and he comes to the mountain heights, where the breezes blow free and the rays of the sun shine first and last. It is ever our tendency to hold our peti- tions down. We forget so easily that the deeper blessings can be conferred only on the spirit. The prayer, *^Give us this day our daily bread," seems more definite and real to us than its companion, '^ Hallowed be Thy name." We are more prone to say, 214 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS *'0 God, give me health," than we are to say, '*0 God, give me a pure heart." James Eussell Lowell tells how he had once seen a goat kneeling down on its foreknees in order that it might eat grass with less diffi- culty. Is there a spiritual parable in this? The action of the animal seemed to Mr. Lowell to suggest the common notion of prayer. He writes: *^ Most people are ready enough to go down on their knees for ma- terial blessings, but how few for those spir- itual gifts which alone are the answers to our orisons if we but knew it." And if we are apt to be material in our petitions we are by the same token apt to be material in our thanksgivings. It is also our tendency to hold our thankfulness down. Thanksgiving Day is the day of gratitude for the harvest and the home. This is all good; it is even Scriptural. But it does not include necessarily the elements of this sug- gestive text. We may well wonder whether there is not such a thing as purely animal THE APOSTLE 215 gratitude— whether the satisfied grunt of the swine in trough and pen is not nearly equiv- alent to much of our thanksgiving. We are only too likely to miss the spiritual side. Is ^J it right that the sons of that God who is a Spirit should not go up into the spiritual life to seek causes for gratefulness ? If man is a spirit but has a body, is he to allow the gratitude for the things which minister to what he has to surpass in volume and fervor the gratitude for the things which minister to what he is? Is there not need of care here in order that gratitude may be, not the expression of refined selfishness, but rather the sign and spur of holy character and holy service? Thus Paul lifts thankfulness into the up- per realms. He refuses to remain in the field or even in the home. He goes to the temple with its supreme lesson for the soul, and there he writes his word appropriate to the sacred place, *^I thank Him that enabled me, even Christ Jesus the Lord, for that He 216 THANKSGIVINa SERMONS counted me faithful, appointing me to His service.'' This is the proclamation to the republic of Christian souls? It is a call to the highest thanksgiving! What are the special characteristics of this finer grade of thankfulness as seen in the text? There is, first, gratitude for per- sonal power: *^I thank Him that enabled me." There is also gratitude for personal character: **I thank Him that enabled me, even Christ Jesus our Lord, for that Ee counted me faithful/' There is especially gratitude for personal opportunity: ^'I thank Him that enabled me, even Christ Jesus our Lord, for that He counted me faithful, ap- pointing me to His service," All these are the terms of the spirit. The large figures of the market place and the healthful beat- ing of the pulse are absent. Instead of men- tioning only what one has received, it recalls what one has been enabled to be and to do. It is thus a thanksgiving that grows up out of benevolence rather than out of selfishness. THE APOSTLE 217 This opens the gate of gratitude to all good men. It may appear to some of you that in the lower ranges of life you find little for which you can be grateful. Business has not been successful. Its burdens and problems have grown heavier and larger throughout the year. Your bodily health has not been good. Nerves have been shaken and racked. You have wondered how much longer you would have strength to carry your load. All this has led to mental worry. Your mind has been haunted by specters. It may thus be that you have approached this holiday feel- ing that you have small cause for thankful- ness. But this text opens the door for you. It contains no reference to bodily health or to business prosperity; and yet it is a paean of gratitude. The secret is this: The apostle looks up into the highest places of life. He could not be grateful for commercial prosperity. There were times when his friends minis- tered to his material necessities. He could 218 THANKSaiVINa SERMONS not be grateful for bodily health. All his life long he carried his thorn in the flesh which pricked him with unceasing pain. He found his cause for gratitude in higher things. So may it be with us. It is said that sometimes vessels lie in the ocean utterly be- calmed. The waters are dead and unruffled. The discouraged voyagers stand upon the deck and long for the harbor. They look at the surface of the sea; they find no move- ment that calls for gratitude; the ocean ag- gravates them with its quietness. But at last they look up; they see the wee pennant at the head of the mast as it begins to flut- ter. The breeze is aloft. It fills the upper sails. Then straight over that dead level of waters they move away under the power of a higher breeze. Do any of us as we approach the festival of Thanksgiving have the feeling expressed in Longfellow's '^Becalmed:'' ** Becalmed upon the sea of Thought, Still unattained the land it sought, THE APOSTLE 219 My mind with loosely hanging sails. Lies waiting the auspicious gales *' On either side, behind, before. The ocean stretches like a floor — A level floor of amethyst. Crowned by a golden dome of mist. Blow, breath of inspiration, blow ! Shake and uplift this golden glow ! And fill the canvas of the mind With wafts of thy celestial wind. "Blow, breath of song ! until I feel The straining sail, the lifting keel. The life of the awakening sea. Its motion and its mystery ! * * * Has this parable of the sailor no meaning for ns ? It may be that our voyage this past year has not been prosperous. 11 we have not been stormed or shipwrecked, we have at any rate been becalmed and have made little or no progress. But if we have been leading the Christian life truly we can catch ♦Household Edition, p. 402. 220 THANKSaiVING SERMONS the grateful toncli of breezes on the upper sails. If we know that we have added to our spiritual power, to our spiritual char- acter, to our spiritual service, we have the ground for the highest thanksgiving. No one has any truer right or fuller duty to say, '^I thank God." We should be grateful for personal power. Over us all He has pronounced an enabling act. We may not have all the power we could wish ; but we have enough to make us responsible, enough also to make us grate- ful. There is some strength in our arm, some in our mind, some in our heart. We have an influence. We are not zeros. There is joy in the sense of the ability that God gives us. Quite without regard now to what we do with our ability, there is joy in its possession. Men rejoice in physical strength even when they do not lift. They rejoice in mental strength even when they do not teach. They rejoice in social strength even when they pass their hours in voluntary solitude. THE APOSTLE 221 If God lias so empowered ns that a cipher does not express our lives, we have a deep cause for thanksgiving. There is, there- fore, no one of us who can not repeat the first of this text, '^I thank Him that en- abled me." "We must go farther than this: personal power may be even disastrous unless it be guarded by personal character. We should thank God if in any degree He counts us faithful. It may be that in this case we have not much to be grateful for ; but surely there is something. At some time in this year you have heard God say, ^^Well done.'' Are we better than we were a year ago? Are we more just? Are we kinder? Are we more generous ? Is conscience keener and quicker ? Do we feel that God has helped us in the gen- eral movement and spirit of our lives to be more faithful? In brief, have we grown in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Then let us be grate- ful! If we become good only as we accept 232 THAXKSamXG SEEMOXS the iUuiniiiatiorL of that Light that lighteth every man; if Every virtue we possess. And every victory won, And every thought of holiness Is His and His alone," then surely we have canse for thanksgiving. Shall we remember to thank Him for what He hath done for our bodies and forget to thank Him for what He hath done for our sonls ? If we can not feel that we have added to ourselves this past year the treasures of more Christlike character, let us turn our Thanksgiving Day into a time of fasting and of prayer in order that, ere its sun goes down, we may joyfully add the second ele- ment of the text: *^I thank Him that enabled me, even Christ Jesus our Lord, for that He counted me faithful/' "We should thank God, also, for personal service. When we have brought in this third cause of gratitude, how divine does our Thanksgiving become? If we conceive that THE APOSTLE 223 there is something in the heart of God that corresponds to the grace of gratitude, we must suppose that it is exercised on the spir- itual plane. The three elements of the text are all seen in His relations to us. If this book teaches us aright, the thing for which God will be most grateful will be that we make room in our lives for Him to show His infinite power, His infinite faithfulness, His infinite service. Is not all this in harmony with the thought of His Trinity? The Fa- ther of Infinite Power ! The Son of Infinite Faithfulness, loving unto death ! The Spirit of Infinite Helpfulness, evermore expressing Himself in the tender moving of His people's hearts ! No thanksgiving is complete unless it brings in this third cause. If God is most grateful when He can do something for man, shall not man be most grateful when he can do something for God I If, then, in this past year you have been a partner in the divine work, how thankful you should be! Let the field thank God not simply because 324: THAXXSamXG SEEMOXS p it gets sun and dew a^ : _ :: -: be- cause it gets a harvest. Let the viiir :_ nk God not only because it s" hs .izr : :ra the son and coaxes life from the i . : '^o because at last it is weighted : :h is fmit. So let man be gratefci i.:: :_ 7 e- canse Crod gives to him, but also, and espe- cially, because he has the privilege of giving to (3od. "I th/i^h Him that enabled me, even Chris: r :^ he Lord, for that He counted -:—- : i :h: i C'^^ding me to His service.' I: :-. L_e:: hi- himself to the lower plane he 11 1^ I it hard to be as grateful as he wo:h i ^i ily feel; if he rises to this higher plane he will find it difficult to get words strong enough to express his gratitude. It is just as one Bobert Davis has stated it in "The Better Prayer; "l thank Thee, Lord, for strength of arm To win my bread. And that beyond my need is meat For friend unfed. I thank Thee mnch for bread to Uve, I thank Thee more for bread to give. .>> THE APOSTLE 226 *'l thank Thee, Lord, for snug-thatched roof In cold and storm. And that beyond my need is room For friend forlorn. I thank Thee much for place to rest. But more for shelter for my guest. I thank Thee, Lord, for lavish love On me bestowed. Enough to share with loveless folk To ease their load. Thy love to me I ill could spare, Yet dearer is Thy love I share.** * , This is gratitude for the opportunity of per- sonal service. Have you in the past year been allowed to help some one! Have you lifted a load from some weary heart? Have you made some sick-chamber brighter? Have you had the chance to give to God's work? Is some one now walking in the way of life because you were appointed to His service? If you are in real partnership with God in making the world better, thank Him truly. Make up your mind that in the points * The Outlook, February 27, 1909. 15 226 THANKSGIVING SERMONS of personal power, personal character, per- sonal service, you shall have more cause for gratitude a year hence than you have now. As gratitude rises higher the whole move- ment of life will follow it upward until at last we lose ourselves in perfect praise be- cause we have reached the land of perfect power, perfect character, and perfect service. VIII THE FINAL CAUSE OF THANKS- GIVING THE FINAL CAUSE OF THANKS- GIVING Text: ''Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness."— FsALM. xxx, 4. If the spirit of gratitude is to be awakened in the hearts of those who hear this Thanks- giving message, it will be necessary that we think together of some ground that is unmis- takably common to all. It is probably true that, if we wished to do so, we could find reason for thankfulness in the material side of our lives; for we have not been reduced to starvation or nakedness or homelessness. But without doubt there would be vast dif- ferences among us in this respect. Some of us have walked with steady feet up the ascent of prosperity, commanding ever a wider outlook upon the things of earth. 229 230 THANKSGIVING SERMONS Others of us have slipped down the hill, which we had before climbed toward ease and independence, and the outlook shuts it- self in to dark and narrow valleys. If, there- fore, the word for this hour related to ma- terial prosperity, some would respond with quick gladness, while others would move to- ward the thought with sad reluctance. There would be like differences at the standpoint of physical well-being. Some of us have walked through the past year with a strong step; the bed of sickness has not held us for a day, nor even for an hour. Others of us have known inactivity; the couch has claimed us for weary weeks ; pain has tramped upon our nerves like some heartless beast. Still others have had a year in which joy and sorrow, success and failure, health and sickness have strangely mingled. But we have never been truly grateful until, like Job in the great epic with its movement from prosperity to adversity, and from ad- versity to prosperity again, we have seen all THE FINAL CAUSE 231 states of life as comprehended in God's gra- cious plan. Smiling lips and moaning lips can both thank God only when the heart is carried np to where the contrasts in condi- tion are joined in some harmony of goodness. Nor would it be well to deal simply with the political causes for gratitude. In every large congregation there are men of all par- ties, and the pulpit can not well be turned into a platform. Some would deem our nation's prosperity a fact, others would deem it a myth; some would consider the changes in the world's map as indicating the advance of civilization, others would take them to mean the march of brutality. Some would feel that the tari:ff makes them rich; others that it keeps them poor. It is not the province of the preacher in his ordinary min- istrations to defend or attack any of these views, but to unite all partisans in the higher agreement of love and obedience as inspired by the divine holiness. From this you will see that if our thank- 232 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS fulness is to be unanimous, its field must be above our differences in situation and in opinion. We must rise beyond the office; for the ledger often tells a story of hardship. We must move away from the hospital; for its register is one of anxiety and pain. We must leave the political headquarters; for from one we would hear a shout and from the other we would hear a wail. Our gratitude must go up toward Him who is the Owner of the earth, with its silver and gold ; toward Him who by the discipline of the world's suffering prepares men for the pain- less and deathless country; toward Him who presides over all our partisanship and is to be at last the Euler of all rulers. In this effort to gain a common and lofty ground for our gratitude, let us raise our thanksgiv- ing to the very highest thing and let us heed this ancient commandment, *^Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness." You will note that this text connects thanksgiving with remembrance. Perhaps THE FINAL CAUSE 233 more than any other day in the year this holiday is a day for a personal retrospect. The only date which would challenge its field in this respect is New Year's Day, and that, as even its name indicates, looks forward rather than backward; it is a day for re- solves rather than for remembrance. What- ever may be the reason for a man's grati- tude, it has to do in some form with his mem- ory. If he is thankful for his future it is because he throws into it the confidence that he has won from his past. This is true in reference even to the gratitude that a man would feel for the promised heaven. He who is thankful for worldly success gives thanks because he remembers; he who is thankful for bodily health gives thanks because he re- members; he who is thankful for political victory gives thanks because he remembers. And he who is thankful for the highest thing gives thanks at the remembrance of God's holiness. Thanking is simply remembering seasoned with justice and reverence; it is 234: THANKSGIVING SEEMONS thinking backward over the past and upward to God. It is thought climbing from the low- est to the highest. It is the mind traversing its old journeys, recognizing that God's com- pany was all along the ways, and lifting up here and there memorials of the divine holi- ness. The word of the psalmist thus states the process through which one must come to his real thanksgiving. But we have here given not merely the path along which gratitude comes, but also the goal which gratitude must reach. Un- less a man's heart arrives at God, the day is without meaning. A few years agf one of the governors of our States gave out a proc- lamation in which the name of God did not occur. The omission created much comment, and we need not wonder that it did. An athe- istic people could have no Thanksgiving Day. Such a day without God would be an eye with nothing to see, a voice with nothing to hear, a heart with nothing to love. It would be a road leading no whither, and every THE FINAL CAUSE 235 walker on it would be an aimless traveler without a destination. It is true that men might have a Thanksgiving Day wherein they should pass from house to house and from man to man, giving praise to human- kind for help and friendship; such a day would not be without its value and its joy. But in the ordinary sense a Thanksgiving Day is impossible without a God. It is the conception that He broods in holiness over our lives that alone gave the day its historic beginning and continues it until now. If the time ever comes when the American people forget God the day will pass from the cal- endar and will become the mere relic of an abandoned faith. This psalmist- thinker leads us straight to this thought. True grati- tude can not stop short of God. So far as the purport of the day is concerned, as judged by the proclamation of our President and governors, the atheist, whether he be such in belief or only in the practical bearing of his life, is merely an onlooker. He views 236 THANKSGIVING SERMONS the foolisli thankfulness of the people and is shut away from all the meaning of the holi- day. He can not bow before a blank ; he can not speak praise to insensibility; he can not be grateful to nothingness. If ever a man is the victim of his own unfaith, it must be on Thanksgiving Day. At that time no man can really get on unless he has a God. In deepest truth he can have no gratitude because it is impossible for him to obey the command, ''Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. ' ' There are times when gratitude simply necessitates God. Then the thankful spirit opens a plain path into His presence. We have been accustomed to put more emphasis upon the need of God as a refuge for us in our sorrow than upon the need of Him as the only goal of our Thanksgiving. But in neither case can we find satisfaction without Him. A man walks out on a day when the earth seems wrapped in gloom and damp- ness. The frost has pinched off every bios- THE FINAL CAUSE 237 som and every leaf. The very air seems his enemy and creeps about him like some stealthy foe, waiting for a chance to pierce him with sickness. The earth has taken on the color of the man's feelings. He is dis- appointed; his hopes have faded; his suc- cess has turned to failure ; a vast sorrow has fallen upon him. The relief and the only relief for that man in his adversity is God. Or another man walks out when the earth is robed in garments of glory. The sun has opened the blossoms and spread the leaves. The very air is his friend and fondles him with the caresses of summer breezes, pour- ing upon him streams of health and vitality. He is happy; his hopes are blooming. This man needs God as much as the other man. The one needs Him as a refuge in his trouble; the other needs Him as an object for His gratitude. The stoic may bear his grief in silence and may set himself against the shock of things. But the grateful man can not hold his gratitude in silence. Sor- 238 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS row may exist without a refuge; but thank- fulness can not exist without an object. It is not, then, too much to say that this psahn- ist was right when he carried gratitude up to God. There is no stopping-place this side of the Infinite. If man is to be grateful at all for the thousand things that lie beyond human creation and human control, he must furnish himself with a God. His apprecia- tion can not hang in the midair, moving on to no object. When a man truly puts his feet on the way of gratitude he finds that he can not halt until he comes to God Himself. But this text does a more thorough work than we have yet mentioned. It connects gratitude with the processes of a sanctified memory. It insists that our thankfulness shall have reference to God ; and it demands that we shall take a large view of God and of His relations to our lives. Thanksgiving Day has been put at the close of the harvest season, when the fruits of the field have been gathered into the granaries and the song of THE FINAL CAUSE 239 plenty is in the land. But let it be said again that we shall err if we allow our thought to remain in the fields and keep the day down until it lies in the dust. God gives us har- vests; but He gives us things more and higher. The treasures of humankind are not all gathered into barns or banks. It is not wise to think of God too exclusively in ref- erence to the fragments which move upon our lives at the prompting of His complete nature. God has power; we may be thank- ful. God has wisdom; we may be thankful. God has truth ; we may be thankful. God has love; we may be thankful. But the highest thing to be thankful for is that He has all these and everything else that is good. He has holiness, wholeness, completeness. His life keeps itself in infinite balance. It would be small comfort to have a God of power who was not also a God of love. Then we would have a tyrant on the throne of the worlds. It would be small comfort to have a God of wisdom who was not also a God of 240 THAXKSGIVIXG SERMONS power— One wlio was an idealist witli end- less theories that He Himself could not pro- mote. Aye, and it would be a terrible thing to have a God of love who was not likewise a God of wisdom and a God of power— One who was merely a sentimentalist, tormented with the sense of His own helpless benevo- lence. But a God of holiness has all of these attributes and holds them in the balance of His perfect nature. What wonder is it, then, that the psalmist breaks out into the call, ^^Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness!" The human illustration is near at hand to help our thought. We all know men who make us think of God. One such may appear to your mind now. He has a strong arm, a cool judgment, a trained mind, a kind heart. He has in his finite sphere something of that poise of character that God has in His in- finite sphere. The attributes of power, truth, wisdom, and love belong to him. He moves close up to obedience to that staggering com- THE FINAL CAUSE 241 mand, ''Be ye Holy; for I the Lord your God am holy." He makes no loud claims. He avoids the pharisaism of self-praise. He keeps free from the censoriousness of the privileged. He uses the ideal as a stimulus to himself rather than as a rebuke to others. Now let that man be related to your life. Within all proper limits he will lend you his power, guide you with his judgment, share with you his knowledge, comfort you with his friendship. For such a one you must be truly thankful. You know that whatever comes within the reach of his ability will be well done. For that man's being there is gratitude. You meet him on the street and you are glad. You see him in his home and you are glad. You merely know that he is, and in that knowledge you are glad. How thankful should be the community that has large numbers of such men— the well-bal- anced, wholesome, whole men. Christlike and Godlike! What, then, shall be our feeling when we 16 242 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS catch the infinite fact for which this illustra- tion stands? No man has ever yet discov- ered how to be glad and grateful unless his heart experiences the remembrance of the divine holiness. Gratitude is impossible without a God, and gratitude is feeble with- out a holy God. Life becomes great and rich and full and fearless only under the train- ing of that thought. Life is tame, stale, doubtful, and joyless save as it rests upon the foundation of infinite holiness. When you have taken that away the world is jarred and wrenched from its safety. It follows that gratitude on Thanksgiving can never rise to any height until one has learned to heed the call, **Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness." The beauty and helpfulness of this sug- gestion lie in the fact that it does lift us above all untoward conditions and tempo- rary disappointments. So far as our trou- bles have arisen from our own willfulness and carelessness we may reproach ourselves ; THE FINAL CAUSE 243 but so far as they have arisen from causes beyond our control we may trust in the holi- ness of God. This gratitude may be given in the time of prosperity. If the holy God— the Father of unfailing power, of unerring wisdom, of boundless love— has sent you suc- cess, it is well. You can be grateful. His holiness has moved upon you in sunshine and gladness ; it has bathed you in the joys of liv- ing ; it has exalted the year until it is in truth a tender memory. Your home is unbroken; your table has been spread with a sufficiency, if not with a plenty ; you and yours have not been crippled in the journey; goodness and mercy have followed the year until its paths have dropped with fatness; and above it all has been the sense of the divine and holy care expressing itself in all these gifts. Well may you *'give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness!" If it has been otherwise with any of you, your consolation is still the same. Both the prosperity and the adversity of good men 244- THANKSGIVING SEEMONS are joined in tlie harmony of God's holiness. Your home has been broken; your table has not suggested bounty; you and yours have been crippled in the journey; the paths of the year have been hard and lean; if you were to write one word across the calendar of the days since last Thanksgiving, it would be the word, ^^Stkuggle.'' But if you are God's child, the consolation is as much with you as with the son of prosperity. All the days have been in the holiness of God. If it were not so, every word of thanksgiving would freeze upon your lips ; every prayer of praise would halt in your throat ; and every feeling of trust would flee from your heart. The one refuge for the thought of the year, the one gracious solution of your problem, lies here: ^^Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness." As long as you keep a holy God you keep an infinite reason for thank- fulness. How can we fret and pine when God is holy ! If it were possible to conceive of any life stripped of wealth, stripped of THE FINAL CAUSE 245 friends, stripped of health, bare of all ma- terial and social blessings, and yet keeping in a true and serene heart a real faith in the holiness of God, that man could be carried on a hard cot, by strange hands, out of the morning's drizzle and cold, and could warm himself here at the glowing altar of the di- vine holiness. This, then, is a message for us all. It lifts us above our differences in situation, above our differences in partisan opinion, and brings us to a high and common sanc- tuary. The doorway to this consoling place is ever ajar. The message gathers you all out of your sadness and gladness, out of your failure and success, out of your sickness and health, out of your poverty and abundance— and it puts you all into the companionship of this text. It lifts, and lifts, and lifts until it lodges us all in the care of the divine com- pleteness. Whittier in ''The Eternal Goodness" uses the much quoted words: 246 THANKSGIVING SEEMONS I see the wrong that round me lies, I feel the guilt within ; I hear, with groan and travail cries. The world confess its sin. Yet in the maddening maze of things And tossed by storm and flood. To one fixed trust my spirit clings ; I know that God is good/' * Even so! God is more tlian good! He is wise so that He can guide His goodness; and He is strong so that He can enforce His goodness. He is holy! That is the '* fixed trust" for the soul. No wonder Whittier soon writes the less familiar verse : "l dimly guess from blessings known Of greater out of sight. And, with the chastened Psalmist own His judgments, too, are right.'* The perfected spirit of this festival day- rests in a perfect God and gives thanks *'at the remembra,nce of His holiness." * Household Edition, p. 819. ^f ^:^ -^Z. 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