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November, 1941
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
Thanksgiving- No Threnody
Photo by Marlon Kroklor
By RALPH G. TURNBULL* Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
setting apart this time of holy re membrance. It may yet be that in a world of economic disorder and misrule the observance of this day may stab afresh the conscience of all thinking people. No holiday is comparable to this day; none is like it anywhere in the world. It celebrates no battle, no birthday of a great man, no political revolution, no church ritual. It is simply the act of thankful remembrance that God has not failed in providing another harvest for man’s need. It consecrates the common soil of man’s labor, and speaks of the linking of ordinary life to the heart of God. Many holidays are pagan, but this is a holiday of peace, of the home, and of living not by bread alone! This acknowledgment of God sets be fore us the truth that man’s chief end is “to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.” And one sign_ that we have learned this lesson is that we are not like the nine lepers in the Gospel story who took every blessing for granted, but that we are like that one leper who' returned to give God thanks! Ingrati tude is a sin that needs to be recog nized as sin, as much as some grosser and more evident transgressions, that we might repent of it at once and learn how divine is thanks to God.. A Reception of Blessing Whenever the Psalmist refers to the bounties of God, there is always the absence of the singular and the presence of the plural. He speaks of “all his benefits toward me,” in Psalm 116. As it is impossible to count the stars or number the grains of sand of the sea-
y-T^HANKSGIVING Is not a note— it is a chord; not a mere sound— 1 it is harmony. The Psalmist of old has expressed for the Christian heart the core of profitable reflection at such a time as this: “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his bene fits toward me ? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. . . . I will offer to thee the sac rifice of thanksgiving-, and will call upon the name of the Lord’’ (Psa. 116: 12-14, IT). Here is no discord in lamentation but the melody of dedication. The question asked implies this neg lected factor of the moral and spiritual life. Individual opportunity in life cre ates and issues in personal accountabil ity. There are times for an inventory and stock-taking in the things of the soul. And the end of the summer with its garnered harvests is not an inap propriate time for this pertinent, re flection. • A Recognition of Cod Here is the supreme object in any thanksgiving, the giving to God of His rightful place and authority in life. No life is wealthy if God is crowded to the circumference, but we are never im poverished when life is God-centered and God-controlled. Thanksgiving must relate life to the Lord of Glory. It is significant and challenging that one nation, the United States of Amer ica, has set apart a day each year for thanksgiving.. The Pilgrim Fathers gave an object lesson to the world in * Patter, Elim Chapel,
* How many Christians go through life waiiing over trou bles, their very lives a low, monotonous dirge— a threnody — that brings God no glory! Are you one of them? For shame! It is time to lift up your heart and voice in glad thanksgiving. shore, so it is futile to expect to count the blessings of God: they are beyond human computation. But we may at tempt a brief classification or point to a few which are ours today. Think of our NATIONAL BLESS INGS. Every true citizen of any land these days must ponder well the meaning of the “benefits” at this hour. For some lands removed from us, what are the blessings? Alas! liberty has gone and slavery is the lot of some; the blight of moral and intellectual darkness is the lament of others who have lost their birthright of spiritual light; and be cause sin is wreaking its insanity in men’s hearts, no righteousness is al lowed to exalt national life and honor. But even yet there are some favored places where men and women, boys and girls, have freedom o f speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of wor ship. In the countries of the English- speaking peoples, the light has not gone out, and the right is still ours to pro claim those eternal truths which alone [ Continued on Page 436]
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