[From the Ocean Beach (California) News]

On Thanksgiving morn let us kneel and truly give thanks to a gracious God and ask for the simple gift of a simple faith, joining with a fellow writer, who says:

"Give us, O God, the gift of believing.

"Help us to believe that right will triumph—that justice is not dead—that honesty and decency and fairness with one's fellow man is worthy of effort—that kindness, graciousness, and good intentions govern the actions of others—that no good is ever lost, no righteousness is thrown away, no service unrewarded."

[From the Escanaba (Michigan) Daily Press]

More than three hundred years ago a tiny band of Pilgrims on the rocky New England coast saw their straggling crop wither in drought. They visioned another "starving time" such as they had looked upon before, when loved ones weakened and died before their eyes for lack of a little corn. Then came rain. The crop was saved. And for this simple bounty they declared a day of Thanksgiving.

This is the day which we, who have been a thousand times more favored, are to observe once again. May we render these thanks with something of the humility and devotion that moved the Pilgrims, kneeling amid their ragged cornstalks at Plymouth.

[Calvin C. Rittenhouse, in the Hancock (Wisconsin) News]

The Psalmist says, "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving." Most of us enter the gates because we think it is the thing to do. We would a whole lot rather play golf or just go out riding. We do not come into the church with thanksgiving....

We just do not know what it means to be thankful for the everyday blessings of a Christian church. We will never know either until we enter His gates with thanksgiving and not merely on Thanksgiving....

"I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving," says the psalm writer. We have not learned to sacrifice thankfully. Only a few of us are thankful that we are on the lucky end of a bad situation. When we are called to sacrifice, we are never thankful that we are able to sacrifice or have anything to sacrifice. We have too much of everything but thankfulness to make us thanksful for anything.

[Rev. Griswold Williams, in the Times, Barre, Vermont]

Blessed are those who feel thankful; twice blessed are those who express their thanks; and thrice blessed are those who cultivate the spirit of gratitude.

There is a spiritual law as certain in its operation as any so-called law of nature, that you can only receive the full benefit of any good fortune when you feel gratitude. It is also true that the good thing is incomplete until it comes full circle back to its source, which is only possible when gratitude is expressed. It is impossible to profit fully by the good things of life without feeling thankful for them....

The life of anyone is overflowing with opportunities to cultivate gratitude. Most people have an acute sense of what the nation or their city or their church or their friends owe them, but little appreciation of the multitude of undeserved blessings from these sources for which they should be grateful. We take life's gifts too casually; "we never miss the water 'til the well runs dry," and then complain that there isn't any more.

Generally our best friends are those we least deserve; yet friendship should be a continual wellspring of joy in the heart that cultivates gratitude. The church and the blessing of free religion, the services of officers, teachers, and ministers, should all be stimuli to a thankful heart. The beauty of commonplace things, clouds, and stars reflected in puddles, the wonder and mystery of all the events of life, can lift up the soul on ceaseless wings of praise....

The kingdom of God will come on earth when men and nations, out of the gratitude nourished in their hearts, share in brotherhood what has been placed for all to share.

[Rev. S. P. Goodge, in the Aldershot (Hampshire, England) News and Military Gazette]

The beginnings of America's life are rooted in independence, and the stand for freedom. For the Pilgrim Fathers set sail in the "Mayflower," in 1620, to find that freedom to worship God in their own way which parental severity had denied them....

Of all the "unalienable rights" so dearly praized by us, that "freedom to worship God" is the most cherished of all. For a man is only truly free when he is free towards God.

And the real freedom, the truest independence, is when that man, set free by divine grace from the chains of self, has lost himself in God, and found "the glorious liberty of the children of God."

[Editorial in The New York Times, New York]

Let us not be thankful because other people are cold and we are not, because others are sick and hungry and we are not, because others are imprisoned or enslaved and we are not, because others are bereaved and we are not....Let us us be thankful, but not in that spirit. Thankfulness that needs the salt of another person's misery cannot be acceptable to the Giver of all good things.

Let us be thankful with the thankfulness of those who cannot feast until they have given to the hungry; cannot enjoy safety till they have done what they could for those in peril; cannot be content with their own freedom if they have taken no stand for the freedom of others.

Let us be thankful that earth gives, and will give, an abundance for her children. Let us not be thankful that this abundance is diverted, wasted, and wickedly withheld—but not from us. Let us be thankful in the hope that wars and tyrannies, the sinns and madness of human monsters, have their term and will be ended—and that we can have a share in writing finis to them.

Let us be thankful because this dreadful year has witnessed a grander harvest than the ripening grain—the blossoming in imperiled lands of unbelivable courage, of unparalleled self-sacrifice. Let us be thankful because we can believe that those who hunger, who sorrow, who suffer, who die while we feast, are earning for this heartbroken earth a happier tomorrow.

Let us accept our own slight deprivations with humble and contrite hearts. Let us be thankful because we cannot doubt that in this nation, too, there reside courage, the willingness to give if giving will suffice, to suffer if that is required of us, to face the powers of hell if only by so doing can we keep freedom here or anywhere.

Let us be thankful—yes. But not complacent.

[From the Star-News, Pasadena, California]

More than for the peace of our vast empire and for bounteous harvests and for any material benefits our thanksgiving song should rise for the rediscovery of our spiritual heritage....

The task of material defense is no sooner begun than we discover that our inner defenses must be rebuilt—our ideas of democracy must be clarified and vitalized; our conviction of the worth of every individual must be deepened; our sense of personal responsibility for a righteous state must be heightened....

The keynote, then, of this Thanksgiving is in the discovery of the moral basis of our prosperity and the spiritual quality of national greatness.... If we keep our commitment to the righteous God, the only Lord of our life and destiny, future generations will swell our thanksgiving chorus.... Let our Thanksgiving song be attuned to the recovery of our faith in righteousness as the strength of the nation and the hope of the future.

[From the Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada]

Thankfulness is essentially a part of the Christian creed. It goes with prayer. It is not only in moments of trouble that we should turn to God. It is a far better thing to turn to Him in prayer and thankfulness when the dark clouds of trouble which have been hovering over us are beginning to disperse. It is the thankfulness in prayer and praise which gives them their full meaning. It is an acknowledgment of the Christian God which must be most pleasing to Him. To Him the "sacrifices of thanksgiving," as they were called by the Psalmist, are the true sacrifices in the offerings we make.... It is the spirit of thankfulness which exalts a nation and exalts the individual.

[Rev. Mr. Jacob A. Winsterstein, as quoted in the Daily Local News, West Chester, Pennsylvania]

"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer." ... Christians are apt to have their spiritual sensibilities dulled by the familiar repetition of these, and other words of prayer, and should guard against the meaningless recital of them. At each utterance, no matter how repetitious, we should try to find and express the real spirit and meaning of our devotions and praise.

[From the Greenville (Michigan) Daily News]

We should forget selfishness and live, not for ourselves alone, but in a way that will make a better town and a better community. Thanksgiving Day this year will be a good day to resolve that we will strive to make the world a better place in which to live, that we will forget animosities, that we will forget and forgive wrongs we may have suffered and look forward to a better and brighter future for all mankind.