Thanksgiving

Concerning the blessings of God, whether they tend unto this life or the life to come, there is great cause why we should delight more in giving thanks than in making requests for them; inasmuch as the one has pensiveness and fear, the other always joy attached; the one belongs to those who seek, the other to those who have found happiness; those who pray do but yet sow, those who give thanks declare they have reaped.

A thanksgiving day has a double precedence of a fast day. On a fast day we eye God’s anger; on a thanksgiving day we look to God’s favor. In the former we specially mind our own corruptions; in the latter, God’s compassions—therefore, a fast day calls for sorrow, a thanksgiving day for joy. But the Lord’s day is the highest thanksgiving day.

Make every effort to come together as often as possible to give thanks and to glory to God. For when you gather together frequently, the powers of Satan are destroyed and his destruction is brought to an end by the unanimity of your faith. There is nothing better than peace by which all war in heaven and on earth is abolished.