and
hence occurring, oftentimes, when there is no special
providential call for a religious service, and being
destitute of the binding obligation a divine appointment,
will degenerate into mere holidays; and in his opinion, the
providential call ought to guide our rulers in the
designation of times of special religious observance; so
that when we fast, we do so in direct view of special
calamity, and when we render thanks, we do so for special
mercies actually experienced. The thanksgiving of last year
occurred at a time of most trying financial embarrassment,
at the close of a season remarkable for its drought and
meagre harvests, and for the prevalence of disease and the
destruction of property by land and sea. Surely, God called
us then to humble ourselves and fast, rather than to rejoice
and give thanks, and a thanksgiving service was appropriate
only for the reason that God always deals with us better
than we deserve. We need the evident appropriateness of the
service to secure its continued and suitable observance. Who
does not remember the appointment by our national Executive,
some years since, of a day of national humiliation, when a
visitation of the cholera was threatened? And now solemn and
affecting the service of that day throughout the land! In
New England, the regular, annual thanksgiving preserves its
sacredness through customs and associations, which were
established in the very infancy of the country, and which
have grown up with it,--customs and associations, which
cannot elsewhere be created.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote A: See Dr. Arnold's "Lectures on Modern History." The above
statement is correct, so long as we take a merely _natural_ view of
mankind--so long as we view men merely in their _moral_ relations.
Viewing men by the light of revelation and in relations more strictly
_religious_, Church-biography would still better deserve the name of
history. But for some reason, these religious relations are not
commonly recognized in their importance. Like the historian, the moral
philosopher commonly ignores man's lapsed condition, and all the great
truths which distinguish supernatural religion. See Wardlaw's
"Christian Ethics."

It ought also to be observed that human governments, at the best, are
obliged to leave many interests of their citizens uncared f