6 Another and yet higher attribute of man is, that he can sort these facts into a system and a sequence; can develope a design in the deeds of his Maker; can prove a plan in His providence, and bear witness to a wisdom in all the ways of God as he traverses His world to and fro; and so man can lay his intellect alongside of God’s mind. And a third and superlative faculty of man is, that what his mind thus perceives his heart and soul appreciates and adores. He is mute with admiration. He thrills with reverence. He is rapt and possessed with love. He rises to his feet and shouts his exulting gratitude, and thus his heart and soul are side by side with God’s heart. They pulse together. The sympathy makes them one. This attribute of man is moral not mental, higher and diviner than mind, for mind is a mechanism ; but the moral is a character and a state of being. This makes man kin to the angels even while he is first cousin to the brutes. It proves him capable of Heaven even while he crawls and gropes in the dust and dirt of the earth. Thanksgiving, therefore, exercises and gives play to man’s whole triplet of powers—to rehearse God’s deeds—to read and recognize their righteous purpose, and to praise and rejoice over them because they are righteous, and because they are His. For this we are come together to-day, to praise
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