Congregational Church.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8053, 3 April 1905, Page 5

Congregational Church.

Very bright and cheerful harvest thanksgiving services were celebrated at Emmanuel Congregational Church yesterday in the presence of good congregations. The services were conducted by the Rev Sidney J. Baker and appropriate hymns were sung. In the morning the text was Romans v, 7 8 : " For scarcely for a righteous man will one die ; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Taking as his subject " Good men," he said that the irresistible apologetic for Christianity was the truly good man. It was not the correctness of a man's theological views, nor that he was counted in the rank's of orthodoxy, but the goodness of a living character such as Cardinal Manning, Lord Shaftsbury or others in a less prominent, sphere, who are manifestly inspired by the Spirit of Jesus' Christ that commended religion to men. The text in the evening was Acts vii, verses 9-11, the subject being "The Seven Lean and the Seven Plenteous Years." After referring to the seven years famine in Egypt, of which there is confirmation from inscriptions found in Arabia and the Nile Valley, and also touching on famines in India of more recent times, the preacher went on to speak of.the plenty, and abundance with which the ingathering of harvest had once more supplied us, and that these tokens of the fatherly care and goodness of God should provoke in us a spirit of devout thanksgiving that should manifest itself in all our lives.

There was an excellent collection of fruit and vegetables contributed by members of the congregation, and these were sent to the hospital this morning.