The Mayflower Compact
Posted on 11/27/2002 9:03:24 AM PST by stainlessbanner
Ancient Fathers Still Speak WisdomDear Friends:
The American Puritans did more than any other group in modern church history to promote the idea of days of thanksgiving. For the Puritans, who did not recognize or celebrate a formal liturgical calendar, it was the responsibility of local congregations to declare and set aside special days of rejoicing to communicate appreciation for the providential blessings and deliverances of God. But the practice of celebrating days of thanksgiving is deeply rooted in Holy Scripture, with its known origin in the ancient Hebrews. Esther 9:19 give us one such example in which thanksgiving was declared for the deliverances of God, and expressed through feasting and gift-giving:
"Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another."
THANKSGIVING READ-ALOUD
For an encouraging family read-aloud article on the Mayflower Compact, Pilgrims, and patriarchy, click here.
Or, to download for your Thursday dinner a copy of Felicia Dorothea Hemans' classic Thanksgiving poem, click here.
PSALM 100
Psalm 100 is specifically designated as a psalm of thanksgiving. It was a favorite of the Pilgrims who incorporated it into their regular psalmody. To read a commentary on Psalm 100 by Charles Spurgeon, the "Prince of Preachers," click here.
A SPECIAL SEASON
Bless God, we have much for which to be thankful. Like every opportunity in life, this year's celebration will only happen once and then it will be gone forever. Make the most of it by reminding your loved ones and your friends just how much you love them. More importantly, give thanks to the Lord God, for His mercy endures forever.
In the words of the Pilgrims' Geneva Bible, "It is He that made and not we" (Psalm 100). This means we have no right to demand blessings. He is the Creator, we are the creature. We deserve nothing from His hand but judgment, and yet he has been merciful and kind to each of us in a thousand remarkable ways. Thanks be to our great God and provider.
Gratefully,
Doug Phillips
The Mayflower Compact
Vox populi, vox Dei.
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Glad your post got a bit more response than mine... |
Here's another Presidential Proclamation to add to the thread:
;-)
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
Sorry but a court can only declare a law unconstitutional.
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