Thanksgiving by J. N. Loughborough

California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 17, 1874

Thanksgiving.

By J. N. Loughborough

When our forefathers, in New England, appointed a day of thanksgiving, it was to pour forth devout feelings of gratitude to God that they had been prospered in securing their crops, and had been preserved from the ruthless hand of the savages. Thanksgiving to God is right. The command of Paul is, "In every thing give thanks." I discover in many of the thanksgiving sermons now-a-days, however, a spirit of self laudation, a "peace and safety" cry, and a disposition to ridicule those, who, holding to the true literalism of God's word, see evident tokens of the consummation of earth's history, and the bringing in of the better kingdom. Especially was this the case on the thanksgiving occasion just past in San Francisco.

I will quote a few statements from Dr. Patterson's discourse at the first Presbyterian church. They are impressive.

"The people of the generation which beheld our Lord's miracles and heard his discourses, were by no means impressed with their sublimity, and even the kings and prophets and leaders of thought in Church and State regarded them with indifference. Only a few hundred of the common people were at all impressed with the significance of Jesus' words and works of wisdom and of love; and their emotions by no means corresponded to the sublimity of the crisis, or to the grandeur of their privileges as witnesses of the salvation of the world. Like their predecessors, they were earnestly expectant of future blessings, but they were almost stupidly neglectful of the great miracle of salvation actually existing among them in the incarnation of the Son of God. This indifference to the sublimities of which we ourselves form a part, is one of the characteristics of the fallen divinity of human nature. We read and admire the sublimity of the heroisms of the distant and of the past; and the prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his father's house."

May the above not be just as true when applied to the great proclamations the Lord is sending in this time to prepare a people for the coming of his Son?

He says of the work of the gospel: "It is true that as yet no nation has adopted the Christian standard of morals, nor does any individual Christian live up to the profession which he makes. Nevertheless it is true that society has been leavened with gospel influences to such an extent as to warrant the expectation of further progress and to warrant also the expectation that such a renewal of its original powers as is predicted by the prophecies and bring the world into the enjoyment of the blessings of the kingdom of Christ." He thinks, as above intimated, that the world is to be converted.

Mr. Ijams, Congregational minister, said, "The past year has served not to lessen, but, rather to augment our confidence in the existence on earth of at least the germ of that which patriarchs, prophets, apostles and saints have rejoiced to describe as the kingdom of God. Surely the conception of something like a principle of moral evolution was present to the mind of the evangelic Isaiah when he recorded

the magnificent sentiment of my text: 'Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.'

"I sincerely, then, call upon you all to rejoice with me this day, and give most humble and hearty thanks that the departing year has brought us new evidence of the glorious threefold truth; that over us and over all things there exists a benignant mind; that He presides over all the commotions and revolutions of history; and that He has an increasing kingdom, which he is evolving out of the very evils of the present, as a lily springs, white and beautiful, out of the quagmire. Tennyson, in his own rare way, sings a deep Christian truth in these words:

'Yet, I doubt not, through the ages one unchanging purpose runs. And the thoughts of men are widened with the progress of the suns.'

"Christianity invites us to a wide survey. Its visions and vistas are not those of an hour, or a day, or a century, but rather those of immeasurable ages. God is in no hurry. He rests not, hastes not. He employed untold ages [The Scripture says he created it in six day. J. N. L.] to complete the solid earth we now inhabit, and He may employ even a longer period to carry to its final stages the grander process of the moral world.

"The mythology of Greece and Rome placed the Golden Age back in the distant past. Christianity, on the other hand, places the Golden Age forward in a distant future. Their religion was a bright memory, ours a glorious hope. They adored the Saturn that had reigned. We hail the Lord 'that is to be,' of whom it is written, 'I am the first and the last.' 'I am he that liveth and was dead; behold I am alive for ever more; amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.'

"Failing to consider this law of moral evolution, two serious errors have been committed. The first is the error of those that are in hourly expectation of a catastrophe, warning us to make ready our ascension robes, for the end of all things is at hand. Modern Christianity has outgrown the literalism that led early saints to expect a catastrophe, and the men who now preach a theatrical dynamic close of human history are guilty of an anachronism. They belong to a past age and might as well strike their tent and erect a permanent temple. The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."

The above was designed to teach the temporal millennium, "Golden Age" theory. It seems to us, however, that it turns Daniel's image "upside down." As far as the thrust at Seventh-day Adventists, and the tent is concerned, no one in that tent has asked any one, or taught any one, to prepare a robe with which to meet Christ. That statement is wholly the manufacture of one who is "smiting his fellow servants," and saying "my Lord delays his coming." While we have claimed that fulfilling signs show, in harmony with the words of our Saviour, that we are in "the generation" that will witness his coming, we have not said he may come any hour, but have taught rather that there is a work of preparation for the event, a warning to the world, ere it comes.

Another material evidence, as he called it, of Christ's kingdom being now set up, and the "Golden Age coming in," was, "Pagans are beginning to laugh at their idols, and so the work of destruction is advancing with amazing rapidity. The work of construction shall certainly follow. 'Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.' In our own beloved land, too, religion seems to be growing sweeter and more Christly."

I don't see as the Pagans laugh much at their idols, or idol service in San Francisco, where heathen Chinese can find already about half a dozen of their temples, and their gods. As for the increasing power of Christianity, evils are certainly on the increase. The Chicago Tribune of Nov. 19th, contains the following: "The wires are loaded down every night with details of the criminal deeds of the preceding twenty-four hours. We are apparently living amid a contagion of crime. The Tribune of yesterday recorded on one page about twenty recent murders, any number of old ones."

That is the way a secular paper views the state of things, but what does the Rev. Dr. say about it? Listen: "What has this year told us of the growing dawn of our golden age? Is the world growing worse or better? Is there a law of progress? Is His government indeed increasing? Has the germ expanded, however little? Yes, thanks be to God."

What is one of the tokens that the millennium is commencing? "It is a pleasing and a grateful thought that our mere physical well-being is not overlooked as an incident of the development of the Divine Kingdom."

Here is the coming of a secret kingdom, "Lo! here or lo! there is Christ." But Christ's own words are that his coming will be as literal, and visible as the lightning which shineth from the one part of heaven to the other. "Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him." May we be ready to meet, and hail with joy his glorious coming. Amen.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.