Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 283, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1916 — PRAISE HIM for This Host Precious Gift [ARTICLE]

PRAISE HIM for This Host Precious Gift

N AN evening of this week it occurred to a man, sitting alone in an upper Kr— yrU room, that Thanksgiving day was right at hand. So he bestirred his Pjjfl IL mind to consider those things for which an American might sensibly ■ V W offer up gratitude to God. Hti reflected that across the Atlantic millions of huYnan beings were at that very moment engaged in the dreadful task of killing other human beings with every invention which Ingenuity and skill could bring forth from the laboratories of science and the workshops of industry. In other lands at that very moment tens of thousands upon tens of thousands of helpless folk —feeble, aged men and women, mothers with babes clinging convulsively to their breasts, little Children sobbing In terror, a vast army of the Innocent and the anguished—were enduring the extremities of exposure, of hunger, and of despair as they fled from their wasted farmsteads and burning villages, escaping from the pitiless cruelty of savage men only to lie down to suffer and die under the pitiless skies of God in the winter and the bitter storms. At that very moment most dreadful war hid half the world in the blackness of its darkness and from that horrid cloud rained destruction upon unhappy Europe—upon her ancient capitals, upon her pleasant cities, upon her villages, her fields, her temples, her treasures of art, upon all the accumulations of a thousand years of genius, of learning, of industry, of skill and of patient advancement of the happiness and the civilization of the race of man. So he that considered all this wickedness that was being done under the sun, this drunken dance of death and hell above the fetid corpses and the multitudinous graves, this awful nightmare of indescribable woe and whith, said in the bitterness of his heart that no God ruled over such a maniac world and there was no thanksgiving due to the Giver of Gifts that were not good, but everyone altogether evil. And when the man had made an end of his thinking, he went and stood in a wlndofr and looked out upon the evening, because it was fair to see. He saw in vision at that instant the vastness of the republic and the multitude of the good and happy folk who live under the shelter of its strength. He reflected how brief a time had thus magnified the works of our pioneer fathers and our pioneer mothers, those brave and simple men and women whose names should never be mentioned with anything but profound gratitude. And to this American, glad with a great pride in the deeds of his people and the story of his country, and grateful to the Goodness which has guided and sheltered his fathers and hi£ folk, lifted up his eyqs to the night, to the quiet stars, to the brooding immensity above, and said in his heart: “Thank God that I am an American I” And, citizens, that is the one outstanding, splendid fact for which each one of us should soberly and most gratefully thank God on Thanksgiving day this year. The finest thing you possess or ever can possess is just your American citizenship. It Is neither necessary nor becoming, on this day or lon any other day, to cheapen.this birthright of ours by brag or spreadeagle declamation. But it Is highly becoming on this. Thanksgiving day to feel a deep gratitude and a manly pride in this heritage. .

And so we firmly believe you do feel. We all hear It repeated that patriotism is a thing of the past; that our people have become commercialized; that the masses have no deeprooted loyalty to the country; that our rich men put dollars above the obligations of their citizenship ; that our poor folk care little for the ideals of free government; that we Americans are decadent in the virtues and valor which marked our fathers. That is not true. If there be any power in the world xvjhich plots war against us Americans and promises nself victory over us on the assumption of our decadence in loyalty, that,power will find how terrible was its mistake when our country calls her sons to battle in her defense. We have, it Is true, in our capacity as a collective people, left undone things that should have been done and done things which should have been left undone; and there, is more truth than there should be in much that is jeeringly said by those who hate us. \ We acknowledge that much of our politics offends common decency. We see, here and there, painful evidence of corruption among lawmakers and even among the judges, who should know only justice and integrity. We see rich men who do betray their country and foul their hands and soil their souls with most infamous dealings and most shameful profits. We see Americans Who do put the dollar above every consideration of right and duty, above the claims of our common humanity. But while these things are true, it is true also that the heart and conscience of the American people, take them as a nation, are sound and sane and wholesome. The blood of our fathers still runs In the veins of their sons. The spirit of the nation may in-

deed seem to slumber in the soft bed of longenjoyed peace and security. But let war come against the land and no man need doubt that that spirit will spring up instantly awake. We can rightfully be grateful that it has fallen to our happy lot to live in this most wonderful of all ages and to be citizens of this most wonderful of all the nations. Let your hearts swell with just pride as you contemplate your country, so august, so splendid, so renowned in the -earth. Look upon your flag as It streams its bright foldf yonder above your heads with proud and happy eyes. Remember how honorable is its story, and forget not how many thousands of brave and good men died that it might wave yonder. the ensign of a free people. Tell to your children the story of their forebears, of those men and women who, amid the wilderness and forests that stood where now stand mighty cities and stretch cultivated farms, erected, with, hardships and endurance and most •heroic faith and valor, tjje noble edifice of our republican liberties. Speak to them of Bunker Hill and Valley Forge and Saratoga and Yorktown, and of the great Declaration—that most famous Charter of Human Freedom. Tell them to thank God for their fathers’ and mothers’ hardihood and courage, for the wars t they fought, for the victories they won. Tell them to salute their flag with high and proud hearts. Tell theKi to thank God this Thanksgiving day that they are Americans. And then do you soberly, gratefully, proudly thank God yourself that you are an American. Oh, dear and mighty motherland, what better gift or more to be desired oftuld God give than to be born and to die, ’strong Daughter of Liberty, between thy shining feet!—From the Chicago American.