CUBA STREET CHURCH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 87, 11 March 1935, Page 9

CUBA STREET CHURCH.

HARVEST THANKSGIVING

At the Cuba Street. Methodist Chucli, yesterday, the annual harvest thanksgiving services were held, splendid congregations attending both morning and evening. As in other years, a great deal of attention had been paid to the interior arrangement of the church, and a fine array of produce of the field and garden was seen. Occupying a platform in front of the choir stalls was a splendid selection of fruit, interspersed with blooms, dahlias, asters, and lilies predominating in the colour scheme. The approaches to the pulpit, and the sounding board above, were included in the arrangement and the transformation was most effective. The services were in keeping with the occasion and the music and addresses were specially chosen. In the morning, Rev. H. L. Richards, who conducted both services, spoke from the words in Psalm 100, verse 4: “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise; be thankful unto Him and bless His name.” AVliile throughout the year there were evidences of Divine love — in the friendships of kindred spirits, the love of children, the gift of home, and the fellowship of elevated minds —at this time there was particular emphasis on Godly benefactions through the avenues of Nature. Mr Richards pointed out how from earliest times men had sought to show thanksgiving to a Supreme Being, conscious of a tremendous power being exercised down through the Hebrew observances to the Christian conception. The pre-sent-day Church was in a long line of succession, but dare not allow itself to remain content in this; rather should it feel “had it not been that the Lord was with us we should not have toen able to do anything.” Understanding of mind, keenness of wit. and strength of arm could not prevail without the oversight of the Divine. Likewise, with a God-given mind, a man could sort and breed plant seeds, but all his attempts to construct a seed had been baulked. There was, said the speaker, a need for thankfulness that on-e’s eyes were opened to see things in the right perspective, even as the blind man of the Scriptures, when Christ had touched his eyes, went away seeing. At the evening service the choir sang the anthem “A 7 e Shall Dwell in the Land,” the soloists being Miss G. Young and Mr J. Perrin. A vocal solo, “Harvesters’ Night Song,” was presented by Mr G. N. AVhitelock. Mr Richards did not speak from a text, hut drew a comparison between the abundance of the things of Nature and the fact of a shortage in many cases. “To the right hand and to the left is to be seen how bounteous is God. Indeed, we are told that the plentifulness of His goodness is causing our confusion,” said Mr Richards. The fact that in one country 21,000,000 bags of coffee had been destroyed because it was not wanted was difficult to comprehend in its implications, but something could be gained by learning that if a person were to dump into the Manawatu River, off the Fitzherbert bridge, a sack a second, day and night for nine months, there would still to some left over. AA 7 heat in tons was being burned, cotton plants being ploughed in, orange cargoes were being dumped—“whoever had failed, the blame could not be placed at the feet of God.” There were 30,000,000 unemployed in the world, probably with an average of three to a family, all in need. He felt that Christian ministry could not to loyal to a Gospel of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man to keep silent, as was witnessed by seven Bishops of the Church in London who declared in a manifesto that it was wanton sabotage and nothing short of blasphemy against God to so destroy goods which were needed. It could not to regarded as an act of God that such should prevail. At the root was greed, selfishness and love of power, and it was a duty to humanity to seek out the reason for the present position.