The Landing Of The Pilgrim Fathers

"You in Your mercy and loving-kindness

have led forth the people whom You have redeemed;

You have guided them in Your strength to Your

holy habitation...You will bring them into the land,

and plant them on Your own mountain, the place, O Lord,

You have made for Your dwelling, the sanctuary,

O Lord, which Your hands have established."

Exodus 15:13,17

Pilgrims Come Ashore At Plymouth Rock

A print by Currier and Ives

The breaking waves dashed high

On a stern and rock-bound coast,

And the woods against a stormy sky

Their giant branches tossed.

And the heavy night hung dark

The hills and waters o'er,

When a band of exiles moored their bark

On the wild New England shore.

Not as the conqueror comes,

They, the true-hearted, came,

Not with the roll of stirring drums,

And the trumpet that sings of fame;

Not as the flying come,

In silence and in fear,-

They shook the depths of the desert's gloom

With their hymns of lofty cheer.

Amidst the storm they sang,

And the stars heard and the sea!

And the sounding aisles of the dim wood rang

To the anthems of the free!

The ocean-eagle soared

From his nest by the white waves' foam,

And the rocking pines of the forest roared,-

This was their welcome home!

There were men with hoary hair

Amidst that pilgrim-band;

Why had they come to wither there

Away from their childhood's land?

There was woman's fearless eye,

Lit by her deep love's truth;

There was manhood's brow serenely high,

And the fiery heart of youth.

What sought they thus afar?

Bright jewels of the mine?

The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?

They sought a faith's pure shrine!

Ay, call it holy ground,

The soil where first they trod!

They have left unstained what there they found,-

Freedom to worship God!

Ruth Morehead
Thanksgiving Babies



Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.


Have a Blessed and Beautiful Thanksgiving!

"The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers"
Felicia Dorothea Hemans

(1793-1835)
Romantic English poetess


"Now Thank We All Our God"
( Nun danket alle Gott)
Lyrics by Martin Rinkart
(1586-1649)
German Lutheran clergyman and hymnist


Music by Johann Cruger
(1598-1662)
German hymnist and editor of the 17th century
Lutheran hymnal "Praxis pietatis melica"
(Practice Piety In Song)


"Now Thank We All Our God"
( Nun danket alle Gott)
Translated from German by
Catherine Winkworth
(1827-1878)
English author and translator