inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national
reformation as a whole people?
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have
been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in
numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
“But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which
preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and
we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these
blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel
the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God
who made us.
“It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently
and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole
American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens . . . to set apart and
observe the last Thursday in November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to
our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”
These words still resonate in a land where God often does seem to have
been forgotten – where turkey dinners and football games have crowded out
what used to be traditional church services in most communities. These words
should resonate as well with grateful hearts throughout the world – with people
who go beyond one day of Thanksgiving to being grateful every day for our
blessings. We should be thankful as well that we still have such vision to inspire
us, and wish for such firm and forthright faith among our leaders today.
(BMH)
‘forget not all his benefits’
With a happy convergence this year’s Journey program – Living Gratefully – was
launched in Bryn Athyn and much of North America during the Thanksgiving
season. As President Lincoln said in his initial proclamation, we should all
recognize and be grateful first to God and “go beyond one day of Thanksgiving
to being grateful every day for our blessings.”
That is what this seven-week Journey program is all about – developing an
awareness of all that the Lord does for us every day and reflecting our gratitude
in the way we live our lives.
The focus of the series is on the five “laws” of Divine providence, which
lead to our happiness – if we let them. It may seem counterintuitive that our
happiness is tied to laws, but heaven is where we find happiness and the first
law of heaven is order.
Laws and order protect our freedom and our opportunity for happiness,
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