November 1932
T h e K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
467
y^uning C l/c ou r T H A N K S G IV IN G **— I« ............. -
B y JOHN BUNYAN SMITH* San Diego, Calif.
hanksgiving D ay is the harp of the American home year. It is the day when we sing our songs o f praise to God. It is the day when the flood tide of American history comes in. Thanksgiving Day is a memorial to that generation which had courage enough to thank God, even though their ship did not come in. The pilgrims sang in the midst of appalling poverty. They were in a strange land, meeting strange situations in life. I f any reader wishes to find a story of human privation and deprivation at their limits, let him read the records of the pilgrim saints who inaugurated Thanksgiving Day. They suffered perils of Indians, perils of cold, perils of famine, perils of disease, and perils of death. But they for got their hardships and lifted their voices and sang praises unto God. S ongs in S trange P laces Do we sing only when we are happy? Psychologists now declare that the first response made to any experience is not reflected in one’s mood, but in one’s gesture. When I triumph, I begin to sing. My singing, plus other physical reactions, makes me happy. “ How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” wailed the captive people of God as they hung their harps sadly on the willows, while their captors taunted them with sneering demands for one of the good old songs of Zion. But the song which begins with a sad question ends with a pledge never to forget Jerusalem, the city of the great God. The first Thanksgiving song in the Bible is the song of Moses at the Red Sea—a song o f deliverance. Paul and Silas, suffering in the prison, could still sing praises and thank God. God heard them and sent down a special messenger to them. That great angel took hold on a corner of the old. jail and shook the prisoners out. This year, of all years, is one in which the believers in Christ should tune their harps and strike up a song. In order to awaken music in our hearts, let us tune up and touch some Thanksgiving harp strings. M editation Let the first string be meditation. “ My meditation of him shall be sweet.” Meditation is almost a lost art in our generation. It was while the prophet mused that the fire burned. Let us meditate upon the history of America. Fol low the march of the pioneers from the Tiber to the Thames and ftom the Thames to the Mississippi and on to the Pa cific seaboard. The hand of Providence guided Columbus across the
GRATEFUL MEDITATION HAS BECOME A LOST ART, A BROKEN HARP STRING.
boundless deep. That same hand turned the prow of his boat, which was pointed straight for the Virginia coast, southward to follow a flock of land birds which took that direction. Thus North America was saved from the domin ion o f Spain and the cursed Spanish inquisition. Columbus named the new country at its birth “ San Salvador”—the land of the Saviour—and now it is spoken o f as, America, America, In the great migration of the seventeenth century, men and women of character and education turned to the new world. God was sifting the old world for choice grain to sow into the new world. Never was there a movement with which the almighty dollar had less to do. Pilgrims came seeking religious liberty, and they found it. Thank God, that blessed heritage still remains to us, their children! Strike this string of meditation, and listen to the sweetness of its music. G ratitude Let us touch the second Thanksgiving harp string, which we may call gratitude. Gratitude is so splendid a medicine, that it should be taken in large doses. Shake speare has well said, What sharper than a serpent’s tooth It is to have a thankless child! The Arab can teach us a very useful lesson. When he breaks his leg, he thanks God it was not his neck. We may well emulate the example of the old Southern mammy who said, “ I have only two teeth in my head, but thank the Lord, they hit.” Whose freedom knows no bars, Where the air is full o f sunshine And the flag is full o f stars.
*Pastor, First Baptist Church.
Made with FlippingBook Annual report