A National Holiday
“From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised.”
Thanksgiving Day was observed sporadically after the early Pilgrim observance. Some Presidents honored it. Others condemned the idea. Sarah Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's Book, used her editorials to push for an annual observance.
President Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation on October 3, 1863, calling for a national holiday on the last Thursday of November. A joint resolution of Congress in 1941 established the fourth Thursday of November as a Thanksgiving Day.
Even in the midst of civil war, Lincoln found reasons for thanksgiving, saying:
"The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To those 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 the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of almighty God."
For Reflection: Which of the bounties of this year have been most extraordinary for me?
A Prayer Seed:
Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest home:
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied:
Come to God's own temple, come,
Raise the song of harvest home.
Henry Alford, 1844
