FOR WHAT SHALL WE BE THANKFUL?
A COMPREHENSIVE answer to this question is found in the words of the apostle Paul, "giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." This covers the whole ground, and might be deemed sufficient for the Spirit-filled believer who realizes his utter dependence upon God. But the masses of mankind, imagining that man is himself a wonderful producer, will incline to query, "Why should we be thankful for all things? are we not able to originate, and do we not originate, many things that are blessings to the race?" The same apostle answers these questions: "God that made the world and all things therein, giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; in Him we live, and move, and have our being." The most selfish of men will feel and express sentiments of thankfulness for favors that they appreciate. A man on trial for his life will heartily thank the jurymen who render a verdict of not guilty; or one who has been sentenced to death will express gratitude for a pardon. So the apostle Paul, when he came to realize that he was a sinner under condemnation of death, cried out, "Who shall deliver me from this body of death?" But on confession of faith in the4plan of salvation, he could answer his own query: "I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Again, in contemplating the final victory over death and the grave, "when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality," the apostle expresses his appreciation in these words: "Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." David sets forth the goodness and mercy of God, as also His truth, as objects of thankfulness, exhorting us to "enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise; be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations." Also, in contemplation of the great goodness and wonderful works of the Lord, the psalmist says of the children of men, "Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing." An appropriate object of thankfulness is that the Giver of all things hears prayer. Christ has left us such an example. At the grave of Lazarus, He began His prayer with thankfulness that God always heard Him. His implicit faith was shown in that, before asking for anything, He said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. And I knew that Thou hearest Me always." This was in harmony with His instruction about prayer: "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Men deem it a great privilege to be able to command the favor of the governor or the king at all times; then how much should we be thankful for free, unlimited access to the throne of grace, and to the storehouse of the all-providing Father. The origin of heathenism was in unthankfulness. Men fell away from their allegiance to truth "because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful." Therefore "with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." The food which God has provided for us was "created to be received with thanksgiving." It is "sanctified by the Word of God and prayer," and he is a "good minister of Jesus Christ" who is mindful to "put the brethren in remembrance of these things." Therefore the Thanksgiving dinner should be such as God can bless. God can not bless, and therefore can not accept thanks for, that which is prepared with a sole view to satisfying the lustful appetite of the glutton and the drunkard. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." In giving thanks to God "for life, and breath, and all things," there is danger of limiting the blessing of life to the present short, mortal life. But the believer in the Word of God knows that there is set before him an eternal life, in which will be none of the trials and sufferings incident to the present one, fraught with sin and sorrow on all sides. He knows, too, that it is a free gift, secured to him at great cost—the sacrifice of the well-beloved, only-begotten Son of God. Eternal life is the result of unmerited pardon from a sentence of eternal death. "All have sinned," and "the wages of sin is death." And so "death passed upon all men." "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." This gift is free for all who will accept it, for Jesus Christ "tasted death for every man." Surely any one who can truly appreciate any blessing, any one who can exercise an unselfish spirit of thankfulness for any gift of God, will not fail of gratitude that such an opportunity has been set before our sinful, dying race. Only the faith that accepts the promises of God at their full value can exercise a real spirit of thankfulness for the smaller favors that come to us in every-day life. No one can realize what true, appreciative thankfulness for heavenly blessings means who limits God's great benevolence to this transient life. Self-indulgence for brief, intermittent moments is not thankfulness. On this nominal Thanksgiving Day, thousands are perishing for the want of the commonest necessaries of life, and thousands are going down to death without hope. Let the living thank God that probation is still lengthened out to them, and the hope of eternal life is still open to all. "Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift."