AS their Thanksgiving day draws near, citizens of the United States are wont to think a good deal about their national existence, and to discover if possible fresh reasons for thankfulness. In so doing the founders of the nation are never forgotten, their toils and sacrifices, their dauntless courage in clinging to their ideals when ofttimes it seemed as if these would suffer shipwreck on the rough rocks of divided opinions or on the treacherous sands of the lust of personal gain. That there were those noble enough to cling through good and ill report to lofty ideals of liberty and of righteous government, even when these seemed impossible of realization, may well call forth our gratitude today and inspire us to do our part bravely for the sake of the present hour as well as the advancing centuries. Often should we remind ourselves that national vanity is a cheap counterfeit of love of country, and that true citizenship demands of all men such true living as will make their country worthy of the reverence of all mankind. In his poem "The Ladder of St. Augustine," Longfellow warns us against the low aims and evil deeds which would impede our progress, and says:—
All these must first be trampled down
Beneath our feet, if we would gain
In the bright fields of fair renown
The right of eminent domain.
There was one who loved his country so well that he wept over its great city, foreseeing the downfall of Jerusalem because it had failed to know the things which belong to peace, but not an hour of Jesus' earthly experience was wasted in vain regrets for prevailing conditions or in condemnation of those who might have done much to remedy these conditions. From his earliest years he was preparing himself for a career which would make the whole world better, and this was to be realized through the uplift of the individual. Men were to learn what God is and then prove what is possible to man as His likeness.
