ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 99, 24 March 1930, Page 8

ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH.

HARVEST THANKSGIVING SERVICES. Harvest thanksgiving services were held in St. Andrew’s Church yesterday and were well attended. The display of flowers, fruit, vegetables and other produce was arranged most artistically under the capable guidance of Mrs Aitchison and Mrs Weightman, and was a delight to the eye. The typical sheaves of barley were embellished by an accompanying sickle of gold. The choir sang special anthems. To-day, the produce was packed and sent to the Presbyqterian orphanages at Berhampore, Wellington. The sermons, which were of a topical nature, were delivered by the minister, Rev. G. T. Brown, M.A. Speaking in tho evening upon the subject of “Sowing and reaping,” Mr Brown spoke especially to the young people upon the influence of companionship. “We carefully select the companionship of our children. We do well to do that for as one field neglected infects with noxious seeds the fields around, so the soul of one infleunces, infects and often .defiles companion souls by the strange contageon of character. This is u mighty Factor in the development of life. Would to God that parents would realise, moreover, that from their earliest years, the minds of children are soaking in not merely what they see and hear, but what they perceive through their childish instincts. It is not merely by commands and prohibitions, by carefully weighed councils and pieces of advice that you are going to mould and direct the life of your child. The child mind pierces beyond all that and senses something of what you are in yourself. Out of vour innermost heart and thought and desire,, out of Ihe secrecy of your own life and character, by a strange and wonderful telepathy to which children are peculiarly sensitive, you are sowing seeds into the lives of your children which are later going to spring up into beauty of character or deformity of soul.”