HARVEST THANKSGIVING.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 11701, 10 March 1902, Page 3

HARVEST THANKSGIVING.

',iafrU tWnWvitig services at St. Mary's Church I the Ven. Archdeacon a.ar^ t offfciatihfe. The preacher took tV*c nis remarks Genesis, 8, v. 21-22, flic proanise of God thfe not /curse the ground any more tor man's ! sake. .. . While th'e.eiftii remaineth, seed-time and harvest and 'cold and heat, and summer and wlrj'ter, '•and day and right, J shall not cease." , a long -way bar 1 x | in the history of tfre world, in the vr /f y beginning of hrurian history, when the e"

referred to ..took place, but the Bible rative describes it with such simplic directness \htlt it' was freed f ltfj p all legendary tendencies, and accep' - ;(s th true Vccoflnt of the flood. R cr -gjtfefy 'be 'said.that there is not, and _ >jftv£Y has bfeeii, a race or nation of -p- on the dearth who not prese" -j n form or other the story of {jj/gTHood, 'and 'he re-beginning of mar ear The little band left t!" . ar ]. n fter the flood subsided, and aftr x «jj^ r offerings to God they received the ? , SK - wvaTl oe contained in the text, touclnr- lltmns t depths of fheir hearts. f ~v onld never or curse - e „ th< nn a harvest wo»ld not cease. pr omise had gone on f ijfrfj ing jtpelf through all the ages down esent —f.-.mi-e has never a- whole enr th. The occiapa of g rowjT) g cmns m this countiv. . jn o . herSj is followed com- / v onl x a li;in<lful of i )enr ; le ' nT1 j ir labour "is of the .utmost- vnb'e rr„_ r ;i .ipoitance to the rest oi the world. n c f <sle famines occur in the ynst countries Jhlna and India, and millions die for „'' -jit of corn and food. the growing of rain "was the most uncertain thing in the ■world, and each country had its -peculiar disadvantage from pests and drought, rain and tornadoes. But God's -promise bad never failed, and never has famine desolated the greater part of the earth. There

was famine in Caanan, but there was plenty in Egv" 1 and if corn fails in one countr the shortage is m;tde up by supplies from another. While the harvests were in one sense from Mother Earth, they should thank' Him who made the earth and all in it for His bountiful and merciful dealings with them. The hyrims and lessons were all appropriate to the occasion, and some slight harvest decorations werfi in keeping with the service.