A Time for Thanksgiving

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal., Kansas City, and New York · Nov 29, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, Nos. 48, 49.

A Time for Thanksgiving

THE autumn-tide is a time to call forth thanksgiving from hearts throughout earth's Northern zones; for it is at this time of the year that even the faithless

"See our Father's hand once more Reverse for us the plenteous horn Of autumn, filled and running o'er With fruit and flower and golden corn. "Once more the liberal year laughs out O'er richer stores than gems of gold; Once more, with harvest song and shout, Is nature's bloodless triumph told. "O favors every year made new!, O gift with rain and sunshine sent! The bounty overruns our due, The fulness shames our discontent. "We shut our eyes, the flowers bloom on; We murmur, but the corn-ears fill, We choose the shadow, but the sun That casts it shines behind us still."

And so with all God's blessings, spiritual as well as temporal. Jesus Christ pours out upon us all the fullness of His riches of grace and mercy; but blind, selfish man, blind because selfish, sees them not, nor appreciates that all come from God. He who truly renders thanks and praise to God at all times, will have an open channel between himself and Heaven. In sorrow and want he will praise God for sympathy and strength to endure. In plenty he will acknowledge God as the giver. All is of Him.

"And we, to-day, amidst our flowers And fruits, have come to own again The blessings of the summer hours, The early and the latter rain."

And to-day we may also praise God for the early and latter rain of His Gospel, which is fitting sheaves for His gathering. The Harvest is almost here. The Reaper soon will come.