Being enriched in everything to all bountifulness. which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.— 2 Corinthians, 9:11.
IN the year 1621, Governor Bradford of Plymouth colony appointed a day of public praise and prayer after the first harvest gathered by the Pilgrims. This expression of the gratitude of a mere handful of sturdy pioneers, who left home and country for the sake of religious liberty, has expanded into the distinctive national and religious festival of over seventy millions of people.
From a material standpoint, those hardy Pilgrims had but little to inspire gratitude, —crude shelter upon a rockbound coast, a simple harvest wrung from the stony soil, a precarious defence of life and property from their savage neighbors; yet they were profoundly grateful. They had found freedom to worship God.
