The Great Thanksgiving Day
Disappearing Act
by Kenneth V.
Ryland
As we passed that last week in
November, I was lamenting the loss of Thanksgiving from our national
calendar. To be sure, the day is still listed in the month of
November every year, but its importance as a national day of
recognition of the blessings and protection of Almighty God over our
nation and over our personal lives is all but gone. We still get
together as families; the family is the last bastion of
"thanksgiving" to God in our great country. However, in the malls and
public squares, there is not even a shadow of remembrance of our need
of gratitude for the Lord's giving us such favor among
nations.
I recently came across a copy
of George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789. Read
through our first president's words, and you will see a very
different idea of what he thought America was and was destined to
become. He relates it all to the Almighty's purpose in making our
people the caretakers of His divine largesse in the newly independent
united States of America (yes, that's an uncapitalized "united"
States -- another indication of how he and the other founders viewed
the government in our nation's capital).
I would like to draw your
attention particularly to the paragraph near the bottom that begins,
"And also that ..." The champions of modern secularism that would
cringe at the thoughts of our first president if they were ever to
give them serious attention (by ignoring them, they pretend that such
ideas were never in the minds of our national forebears).
For example, President
Washington proclaimed that our new nation was to undertake the
following: "... to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations
(especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them
with good governments, peace, and concord; ..."
Yes, our people were to become
the missionaries of this new type of government -- the representative
republic. And, our national mission included the need "to promote the
knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase
of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all
mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be
best."
Well, there you have it. One
integral part of our national mission was to promote "the practice of
true religion and virtue," which to the people of Washington's day
was Christianity. And, in that national Christian atmosphere, to
promote "science," which included not just science as we know it, but
learning in general, which has always been the route to freedom and
prosperity.
I hope you enjoy the words of
our first president, who truly has earned the titled of "Father of
our Nation." The whole thing is very enlightening. I hope you enjoy
it.
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George
Washington's
1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation
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Whereas it is the
duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of
Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His
benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor;
and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint
committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the
United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be
observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and
signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them
an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government
for their safety and happiness:"
Now, therefore, I do
recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November
next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the
service of that great and glorious Being who is the
beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that
will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him
our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and
protection of the people of this country previous to their
becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and
the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course
and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of
tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;
for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been
enable to establish constitutions of government for our
safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now
lately instituted' for the civil and religious liberty with
which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and
diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the
great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer
upon us.
And also that we may
then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and
supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and
beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;
to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to
perform our several and relative duties properly and
punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to
all the people by constantly being a Government of wise,
just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully
executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and
nations (especially such as have show kindness to us), and
to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to
promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and
virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and,
generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of
temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be
best.
Given under my hand,
at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D.
1789.
(signed) G.
Washington
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E-mail
Ken Ryland at kvryland@yahoo.com
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