AT Thanksgiving time American citizens are always reminded of the deep gratitude they should feel for the rights and privileges which citizenship in this great republic implies. The names of the brave founders of this nation are recalled, and their heroic struggles and sacrifices for the cause of human freedom are rehearsed, that the people of to-day may be enabled to measure their debt to the men and women who laid the foundations of this country's greatness, and thus may be inspired to do their own part so nobly as to better the present time and enrich the future.
Whatever else may be said or thought of our pioneers, it is true that their greatest service to posterity consisted in their willingness to sacrifice material considerations to the great moral and spiritual issues of the hour, and thus to prepare for the coming to all mankind of that true freedom which is the only hope of the race. The logic of the lesson thus gained should be kept ever before us, and it is this: If this nation had its birth and grew to its present maturity in the idea of subordinating material considerations to moral and spiritual demands, must not the spiritual always take precedence in order to insure the continued welfare of the nation? Speaking of the stern virtues of the Pilgrim Fathers, Frederick Lawrence Knowles has said,—
Tell us, ye stars, that watched their lonely fires,
Yea, watch each generation as it runs—
The witness of their prayers, and our desires
High as their own—say, are not we their son?
Shall not the virtues which have made them great
Rule, animate, enthrall our hearts, control our State?
