ival of the Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor--and Chaplain Seymore
preached a sermon "gyving God thankes for our happy metynge and
saffe aryvall into ye countrie." The earliest Thanksgiving Day of
the Plymouth colonists was in 1621.

Theological Virtues.--The three virtues, _Faith_, _Hope_ and
_Charity_ or _Love_, as enumerated by St. Paul in the 13th chapter
of 1 Corinthians, are called Theological Virtues because they are the
gift of God and have God for their object. They may be explained as
follows:

FAITH is a gift of God, infused into our souls, whereby we firmly
believe all these things which God has revealed.

HOPE is a gift of God, which helps us to expect with confidence that
God will give us all things necessary to salvation, if we only do
what He requires of us.

CHARITY is a gift of God, whereby we love Almighty God above all
things for His sake and our neighbors as ourselves.

Thirty-nine Articles.--(See ARTICLES OF RELIGION.)

Thomas (St.) the Apostle.--The Twenty-first Day of December is
observed in memory of St. Thomas, who was called by our Lord to be
an Apostle. We find very little in Holy Scripture concerning St.
Thomas, but there are four sayings of his recorded which are
indicative of his character. They are as follows:

1. "Lord we know not whither Thou goest, and how can we know the
way?"--St. John 14:5. {255}

2. "Let us also go, that we may die with Him."--St. John 11:16.

3. "Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails and put
my fingers in the print of the nails and thrust my hand into His
side, I will not believe."--St. John 20:25.

4. "My Lord and my God."--St. John 20:28.

From these sayings we see in St. Thomas, (1) the spirit of inquiry,
(2) bravery in the face of danger, (3) his doubt and unbelief, and
(4) strong conviction and the triumph of faith. An ancient writer
declared that "by this doubting of St. Thomas we are more confirmed
in our belief than by the faith of the other Apostles." It is upon
this fact that the Collect for the Day is founded. St. Thomas is
said to have carried the Gospel to the Parthians, Medes, Persians
and Chaldeans, among whom he founded the Church. It is believed,
also, that he preached the Gospel in India. He suffered martyrdom,
having been put to death by the Brahmins at Taprobane, now called
Sumatra. In ecclesiastical art, St. Thomas is represented as
handling our Lord's wounds; or in reference to his martyrdom, with
a lance or spear;