Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1917 — AND SHALL WE YET THANK HIM? [ARTICLE]

AND SHALL WE YET THANK HIM?

The season is again with us when, from custom and from the inner promptings of the spirit, we are wont to lift grateful hearts to a merciful and bountiful Creator in thanks and gratitude for His dealing with us during tbe year that is past. And shall we yet thank Him? -Let us see. At this same season one short year ago we thanked Him from full hearts that He had kept us from the madness that was devastating our kinsman across the waters. But today w r e have beaten the pruning hook into a sword, and from ocean to ocean the tramp of armed forces resounds. In view of the staggering issues with which our people are face to face, are we to content ourselves with thanking an all-powerful God for life and health and plenty—material plenty? Ard we to look no further than the mere creature comforts with which He has so bountifully showered us? Some may answer, “For what else should we thank iHlim? Has not the madness fallen upon us, too? Are not our young men thronging to the sacrifice, and are not our wives and mothers and sisters and brothers and fathers, with bleeding hearts, helping them on their way?” Again, let us see. A century and a half has flown since a band of consecrated men, with vision that reached out far into th/ future, determined that on this our loved soil should be reared an edifice such as the ; world had never before witnessed—a nation wherein should reign that immortal

trinity of human beatitudes, freedom, equality, justice. To this they dedicated unselfish lives, for this they fought, and for this they died. But their lives and their deaths and their unselfish sacrifices prevailed, and today that edifice stands the wonder of earth —a land grounded and built on the eternal principles that guarantee to one and all the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But these beneficent principles are not all prevailing. In other lands are forces that would set them at naught and make of their advocates serfs and vassals. It is with these forces that we are nowat variance, as were our fathers before us.

Can we, then, think an all-wise Father that our fathers left to us an inheritance of freedom that we must now defend with our ’lives and our all? Let us suppose that our hearts could not feel this gratitude—what then? Suppose us a people, descended from heroes with whom the glorious vision of a free earth far outweighed any thought of self —we, the children of those heroes, willing, like Esau of old, to barter our glorious heritage for a mess of the pottage of ease; willing to submit to degradation, so our selffish enjoyment of the creature comforts be not interfered with. But what red-blooded American could entertain the thought? People of America, let us raise one mighty shout of gratitude to Almighty God that when the hour of o>ur testing came, it found in us hearts that pulsated with that same rich red blood that in days agone fertilized and made sacred the soil that has nurtured us. Let us give thanks that the spirit of ’76 is still the mighty force in American life. Let us give thanks that our hearts can choose rightly between present ease, and future glory. Let us give thanks that when the hour of our trial came, it found us worthy to call ourselves sons of our fathers. Let us pour out our hearts in gratitude that upon these hearts has been indelibly engraved the immutable decrees of an all-wise God, decrees that would make of this his glorious world a haven of safety for every immortal soul. And as willingness without opportunity is but a negative virtue, let us give thanks that, when His plans for the great uplift of mankind needed champions, He found us worthy instruments upon whom to lay His hand. For this thy greatest of all mer-cies—-that thou hast found us worthy—-Father above, we would most humbly thank Thee.