The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1911, Page 83

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

83

Thanksgiving Day.

We thank Thee, Lord, fer spring’s glad hours.
For summer's sunshine, birds, and flow'rs,
Full harvests, and good cheer,

For autumn’s rainbow lines and glow,

For winter's mzntle white of snow —

For blessings through the year!

For food, and raiment, and inerease

Of harvest plenty, and for peace,

For pleasure, joy, and grief,

For toil and pain, for care and loss,

For sleep, for strength to bear life's cross,
For kind and glad relief;

For Liberty and Fatherland,
For a united household band,
For all our needs supplied —
O God, our Father, we to-day
Give thanks for all, and now we pray
With us to still abide!
i, Coyle.

oo oe ——

Thanksgiving.

Luther writes: “Even the heathen have said in-
gratitude was the greatest vice. Nevertheless, we
find that this is the most common sin.” It has
always been so, and it is so still. Seed time and
harvest, summer and winter, night and day, come

and go, but there is little giving of thanks. Men
lie down on comfortable beds and sleep; they rise

up in the morning refreshed; they have been kept
in safety by night, and they are supplied with food
by day, but there is little thanksgiving. Even pro-
fessed Christians sometimes sit down and eat their
food like unthinking animals, without a word of
thanksgiving to God, the Giver of all good gifts.
Men receive favors from God every hour in every
day of every year, and yet, how few give thanks!

We:-cannot doubt that God wants to be thanked.
The Psalms are full a thanksgiving. Again and
again we are told to “give thanks unto the Lord,
for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever.”
Think of the many mercies of God which you daily
receive: think, and thank! Count the many bless-
ings and many benefits which you daily enjoy, and
give thanks to Him from whom all blessings flow.

Said oa Christian writer: “One winter evening
I hurried home leading my little daughter by the
hand. As we walked on, she said, ‘Father, I will
count the stars.’

“All right, begin,’ I replied.

“After a while I heard her count: “Iwo hundred
and twenty-four.’ ‘Oh,’ she then cried out, EL yen
no idea that there were so many!’ ~

“Ah, dear friend, I sometimes say within my
soul, ‘Lord, I will count Thy benefits! Soon I find
my heart sighing, not with sorrow, but burdened
with blessings, overwhelmed with the Lord’s loving-
kindness. And then I say to myself, ‘I had no idea
that there were so many!’ ”

Count your mercies! You will then’ say with
the Psalmist: “Blessed be the Lord. who daily
loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our sal-
vation.”

Think, and then_ thank!
thanksgiving season. But thank not only with your
lips. ‘Thank God with your heart. Then your
thanksgiving will become practical. You will prove
your thankfulness by thank-offerings.

“What shall we render unto the Lord for all His
benefits towards us?” Well, for one thing, be more
faithful, and constant, and earnest in helping to
extend Christ’s kingdom upon earth for the salva-
tion of sinners. Remembering the many spiritual
blessings with which God in His grace has blessed
them, Christians should in gratitude bring these
Gospel blessings to those who are still without God
and without hope in the world. “Mission gifts for
the salvation of others are the best thank-offerings
of saved souls.”

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all
His benefits; who forgiveth all-thy iniquities; who
healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life
from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-
kindness and tender mercies,” Ps. 103, 1—+4..

Especially at the

ys one
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A Mission Gift from. Africa.

The late Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, well
known for his mission labors among the Indians of
the West, related that on the day of his ordination
a verierable pastor laid his hand on his head, saying,
“Ny dear brother, do not forget the wandering red
men, whom Jesus Christ wants us to bring home!”
On the same day, said Bishop Whipple, ‘Missionary
Hoffmann, who had just returned from West Africa,
handed him $75.00, saying, “When t took leave of
our African Christians, they handed me‘ this’ sum
with the instruction to give it for any ‘heathen people
in America ETS whom. mission work is to be
done.” oe ees |

"That ” money was the ‘first gift that’ ,Bishop
Whipple received for his Indians. And that mission
gift came from colored Christians i in West Africa.