“In Everything Give Thanks”
It can be done; and according to Dr. George M. Mackie, it is not a strange thing even now in Oriental lands. He tells us this in a recent Sunday School Times. Writing from Beyrout, he says: “‘Thanks be to God,’ ‘Praise to God,’ these are the most frequently used expressions in Oriental intercourse. In sickness and pain, in anxiety and sorrow, inquiry brings the invariable reply, ‘Praise God.’ On one occasion the writer met on the outskirts of Beyrout two Druse women, evidently mother and daughter. The younger appeared to be a wife who had been dismissed by her husband in a fit of temper, and as she went toward the frigid welcome in the old home, and thought of the little child, or children, she had left behind her, she was in such bitterness of spirit that she did not think of veiling her face as she passed me. The tears were flowing down her cheeks, but as she walked along she kept slapping her open hand on her mouth as if to keep back rebellious words, and saying rapidly, ‘Lord, I thank Thee, Lord, I thank Thee, I thank Thee.’” “In the Jewish prayer-book a list of eighteen thanksgivings is presented for daily repetition, and besides these a form of Hebrew words is supplied as an ascription of praise for various occasions, such as the returning festivals, the Sabbath day, the new moon, when eating or drinking, tasting fruit or vegetables, smelling fragrant barks, spices, plants, and oils, when hearing thunder, seeing lightning, or when meeting any man eminent in sacred or secular learning.” Surely the Christian has far more abundant reasons for giving thanks.