HARVEST THANKSGIVING SERVICES

Southern Cross, Volume 9, Issue 4, 27 April 1901, Page 7

HARVEST THANKSGIVING SERVICES

The harvest thanksgiving services in connection with the Don street Primitive Methodist Church will be held to-morrow. The Rev. J. F, Jones will conduct the morning service, and the Rev. T. H. Lyon the evening one. The church will be decorated and there will be special music. On Thursday evening next the harvest cantata, ‘ A Daughter of Moab, ! will be rendered by the choir assisted by musical friends. This cantata, which is being given for the first time in Invercargill, is described by some of the English papers as the prettiest sacred cantata Ever Produced. It deals with the romantic story of Ruth, commencing with the sore famine that drove Naomi from the land of Judah. The wail of the children for bread, and the joys and sorrows in Moab are given in song. When ten years have passed Judah is once more a land of plenty, and the bereaved Naomi returns, accompanied by the self-sacrificing Ruth. The numerous musical items dealing with these incidents, and also with the gleaning in the harvest field and subsequent marriage of the noble gleanor, are of a high order of merit, and make the cantata a very attractive and appropriate one for a harvest festival. The part of Ruth will be. taken by Mrs Ibbotson ; Naomi, Mrs Dyer; Orpah, Miss Lumsden; and Boaz, by Mr A. Froggatt. The choir will be under the conductorship of Mr W. Field. A coffee supper will be one of the features of the evening