Lest we forget the cost...we give thanks

William Bradford’s account of the experience of the settlers at Plymouth Colony is not only a moving description of the trials of emigration to a wilderness but also captures their profound faith and contains a timeless exhortation to succeeding generations:

"Being thus passed the vast ocean ... they had now no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain or refresh their weatherbeaten bodies, no houses or much less towns to repair to ... And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp and violent … Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness? … Neither could they, as it were, go to the top of Pisgah, to view from this wilderness a more godly country to feed their hopes, for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upwards to the heavens) they could have little solace or content … what could now sustain them but the spirit of God and His grace? They cried to the Lord, and He heard their voice, and looked on their adversity. Let them therefore praise the Lord, because He is good, and His mercies endure for ever."

a portion from President G. Bush's Thanksgiving Proclamation