[From the Christian Advocate, New York, New York]

"Count your blessings" is the only possible text for a Thanksgiving discourse this year. It may not be the letter of the Scripture, but it is true to the spirit of the Word. It is the other way of reading the injunction, "Forget not all his benefits." It is the apostle's "Giving thanks always for all things," and, "In every thing give thanks." These people who were so keenly conscious of the reality and value of their spiritual possessions did not waste much time in taking inventories of their material liabilities. Their balance sheet was never "in the red." Why should the Christian's ever show a deficit?

Circumstances, some will say, make it unusually hard, well-nigh impossible, in fact, for Christians to feel thankful when so many things in which they have trusted have crumbled in the past year. Hope for the return of better times has been deferred until the heart is sick. The hard-earned accumulations of a lifetime yield no return, and are perhaps forever lost. A year of incessant toil in farm, garden, and orchard has been without the reward which husbandry has a right to expect. These things hurt. Some people cannot lift their minds above them. They seem to be the whole of life. To be summoned to give thanks is a mockery.

Not so with the Pilgrim Fathers, who, in their hour of distress, found it in their hearts to thank God for His blessings:

Not so with the Psalmist who with but a dim foregleam of the character of God and the riches of His grace, as revealed in its fullness by him who came in the likeness of human flesh to show us the Father, could not be confounded by troops of trouble, could always make a joyful noise unto the Lord and enter into His house with thanksgiving and into His gates with praise.

Gloom has no place in the Christian's program of life. The happiest man is the one who thinks the most pleasant thoughts. This is no silly "Pollyanna" philosophy. It is a fact which anyone can test for himself. Count your blessings. Let your mind dwell on them. If they are few this year, you can double them by ministering in Christ's name to someone whom you know to be worse off than yourself. If you have nothing to give but sympathy, you will find those all around you who are perishing for the lack of it.

In more abundant times, we often failed to render the thanks that were due. Perhaps it is one of the compensations of the lean years that the blessings, though easier to count, are the more highly prized.

[Rev. B. E. Watson, as quoted in the Star-News, Pasadena, California]

The Pilgrim Fathers, in their quest of happiness, claimed the promises of God to Abraham as the sanction for their adventure. As their little party formed the solemn procession from the church to the seashore, the voice of their leader rose above the noise of the marching feet: "Get thee out of thy country ... unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation: ... and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."

The story of this adventure is familiar to every school child. The magnitude of their faith has not always been clearly conceived, nor the price of their adventure fully appreciated. The history of liberty holds no greater chapter than this. These brave women and "lean men, with empires in their brains," sought not gold but God. ...

It was this kind of folk who gave us the beautiful example of thanksgiving! Gratitude when surrounded by conditions which promised more suffering? ... Yes, for theirs was the peace which passes understanding. They knew that inner conditions more than outer circumstances control happiness, for out of the heart are "the issues of life." They knew that the "nature of man without God is thoroughly miserable." They had learned to sing with the Psalmist, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." These Godfearing people not only gave us the institution of Thanksgiving—which is a part of our national heritage—but their successors gave us a new conception in the Declaration of Independence, that all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain Inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." What a combination! Here is the triumvirate of democracy. No man, no nation, can be truly happy when enslaved. Slavery, regardless of its nature, will crush and curse. Slavery to a false notion will lead to disaster. But devotion to a great ideal will return happiness. "He who seeks to do God's will first, who puts duty before pleasure, and ranks others above himself, cannot escape the glow of happiness that comes from the sense of God's approval." ... Someone has said that "happiness is a duty, because it helps and inspires man." ...

To take the law of happiness is to signify that we are working in harmony with the laws of God for our being. This attitude of happiness is a great benefit to others. Henry Van Dyke reminds us that "a cheerful friend is better than a waterproof coat and a foot warmer. The best results in life come from happy people." For happiness bubbles like a spring, and sings like a bird. It warms like the sunshine, and cheers like a glowing fire. Pascal has said that "happiness is the union of ourselves with God." What fragrance is to the rose; what song is to the lark; what ripeness is to the orange; what culture is to the intellect, that happiness is to man. But what is the basis of our happiness? What does it take to satisfy us? The basis of our happiness is the measure of our life. All desire happiness. ...

The happy nation is not the one whose citizens are drugged with alcohol, but one whose homes contain loyal and loving parents and laughing children. Love and loyalty are of God, and when we learn His way we have found the road to happiness. "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." But happiness is not the result of a direct quest. It is rather the by-product of a helpful, useful life.

[From the Times, London, England]

We read that only one of the ten lepers returned to give thanks to their healer, and he was a despised Samaritan. The other nine have gone down in history as standing examples of gross ingratitude. It is easy to condemn them and yet to be unconscious of the small part which thankfulness plays in life. How many of us make, in the old phrase, a habit of "counting up our mercies"? Life's common gifts, rich and varied, we are apt to take for granted, breathing no word of thanks to the supreme Giver of them. But the spirit of thankfulness, if we can make it our own, can work in us a marvelous transformation. ...

The Christian temper is preëminently a thankful temper. How often St. Paul enjoins upon his converts the duty of being thankful! He pours out his soul in his letters, and we see again and again, not only in deliberate statements, but in a chance phrase or a parenthesis, how his whole being was brimming over with thankful gladness. When he became a Christian he experienced a great release. He was released from legalistic ways of thought, which were cramping, and found his feet set "in a large room." He discovered a new loyalty which called forth all his energies. He could never be thankful enough to God for all His goodness. He had many difficulties, ill health among them, many cares and anxieties, but the buoyancy of his soul increased because he was freed from the narrowing egotism of self and taken up into the life of glad surrender to a great cause. Release of one kind or another is what thousands of people need today. If we can learn to be thankful we shall begin to discover a new liberty.

The Christian possesses deep grounds for thankfulness in the assurance that, despite all appearances and in face of all the ugly and painful things of life, wisdom and goodness are on the throne of the universe.

[From the Democrat, Fort Madison, Iowa]

Thanksgiving Day, if properly observed, is one of the most helpful holidays in the entire year. It gives one an opportunity to do some serious reflecting, and if one spends a part of the day in such a manner, he will find it to be unusually helpful. One might well ask what he has to be grateful for today. In formulating a reply to such a question, one nearly always begins by recounting his material possessions. But it is not for material possessions that one should primarily be grateful. Regardless of how few or how many material possessions one may have, he still has much for which to be grateful if he will only give enough thought to observe what these things are.

A basic condition on which true and genuine gratitude may be based is that of man's relationship to God. Realization of this divine relationship shows one that God, "in whom we live, and move, and have our being," as we are told in the Bible, is the actual source of all good. This being true, it at once becomes apparent that God being omnipresent, good ... is omnipresent. And as God can experience no want, nor can there be any lack of God, there cannot be any lack of good. Regardless, then, of what one's ledger may say concerning assets and liabilities, man, recognizing his true relationship with God, is the recipient of all good, and this is much for which to be grateful.

Being grateful is much more than saying so in words. ... Genuine gratitude is shown by actions, for, whether one realizes it or not, gratitude is activity of the right kind manifested in one's daily life. When this is understood, one sees that the business of being grateful is not something for one day a year only, but that it is a constant experience. Expressing gratitude is something to be done every hour of every day, and unless this is done, one is not truly and genuinely grateful.

Mankind is too much inclined to be careless in the matter of gratitude. ... When Jesus healed the ten lepers, only one returned to give thanks, the other nine going on their way without so much as saying "Thank you." ...

What about the depression? someone asks. Do not think for a minute that the depression is without its benefits, for the past ... years have taught us much concerning things which are real and things which are unreal. ...

Serious contemplation of things real and worth while will make Thanksgiving Day really helpful. If it is observed merely as a holiday, its holy purpose has not been apprehended nor achieved.