46 THANKSGIVING SERMON. elevation so lofty that it is easy for us to become giddy and have our heads turned. Let us take shame to ourselves, and suppress the flame of turbulent passion and vainglory. If a wise providence designs this war as a school in which the American character is to be burnished and invigorated, it is that we may study and learn those high principles of morality and rectitude which will guide its upward and onward course, and whence it may start afresh on a career of honor to itself and a blessing to the world. It is with monitions and hopes like these that we hail this day of thanksgiving and praise. It is in every view fitting that we make our grateful acknowledgments to the Great Giver for his distinguished goodness toward us during the year. Such health, such plenty, such promptness to anticipate the wants of the poor, even in the midst of all these stagnations of business and commercial embarrassments, demand our thanks. Nor is this all. Does not this rising of a great people in defense of their government demand our thanks ? Do not the public proclamations of the chief magistrate of the nation, and of the chief magistrate of our own commonwealth, so beautifully recognizing the claims
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