| Finding the Way |
Chapter 18 |
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But it is not intended that the other three hundred and sixty four days shall be empty of gladness because one is named as an especial day of rejoicing. We cannot crowd into any one day all the praises of a year. Indeed, on no one day can we be grateful for another day. No one person can give thanks for a whole company of people. So no one day can be glad for any but itself. All the days should be thanksgiving days. Any that is not lack something, and stands as imperfect days in the calendar. We are told that we may count that day lost in which we do no kindness to any one. In like manner may be set down as a lost day that one in which no songs of gratitude rises from our hearts and lips to God.
Anybody can be thankful on one day of the year. At least it ought to be possible for even the most gloomy and pessimistic person to rouse up to grateful feeling on the high tide of an annual Thanksgiving day. No doubt it is something to pipe even one little song in a whole year of discontent and complaining – the kind of living with which some people fill their years. God must be pleased to have some people grateful even for a few moments in a long period of time, and to hear them sing even once in a year. But that is not the way He would have us live. The ideal life is one that is always thankful, no only for a little moment on a particularly fine day. “Praise is comely,” that is, beautiful – beautiful to God. The life which pleases Him is the one which always rejoices.
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