HARVEST THANKSGIVING.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 12022, 23 March 1903, Page 3

HARVEST THANKSGIVING.

The services at St. Mary's Church, Tiniaru, yesterday were harvest thanksgivings. The church was very tastefully decorated with corn, flowers and grasses, and a large basket of fruit occupied a prominent position. The young ladies who arranged the decorations were highly complimented on the result of their labours in the remarks made by attendants at the services. Selected Psalms, Lessons, and Thanksgiving Prayers were read, and special Hymns and the anthem " Praise the Lord 0 Jerusalem" were sung. v The spirit of the services, aided by fine weather, was .well calculated to assist in evoking the feeling of gratitude to God for His bounty, the duty and the pleasure of which were the subjects of the Archdeacon's morning sermon. Taking his text from Col. xv, 3: "Be ye thankful," he said that St. Paul seemed to sum up in these few words one of the most practical chapters in the whole range of his epistles. The same exhortation is repeated over and over again throughout the Bible, the Israelites tvere specially enjoined to practice thanksgivings for their harvests, and appropriate ceremonies were provided for the purpose. The sermon proceeded to sho-w that a feeling of gratitude to God is of more religious value to the individual— J ln S s one s nearer to God—than the sense of fear, the sense of duty, or any form of pious discipline. This was illustrated an analogy from daily life. If one haa received a benefit from a .friend, the recipient would have his own feeling of friendship for the giver enhanced by goinoto his friend and expressing his gratitude for the benefit. This must be a good analogy, -for the goodness of God is of the same nature, though infinitely greater m degree, as the goodness of man. Everyone admits that it is right and fitting to show one s gratitude for benefits received i. on \ _i° ne s should gratitude be shown for the endless benefits so freely bestowed by Almighty -they """ere now assembled for the purpose of publicly expressing their Gratitude for an abundant harvest, and if there was a gram of sincerity in their thoughts, they must be brought nearer to God by doing so The harvest,-the most abun-. dant perhaps ever seen in the country they owed entirely to Him. Human strength, wisdom, skill, or science could not command the sunshine or the rain or ward off insidious foes of caterpillars or disease, or the violent gales which sometimes robbed the fanner of half the ref If have much to be thankful for, in living in so favoured a land, where, for instance, such a terrible drought as has afflicted a neighbouring colony is impossible. It is not improbable that New Zealanders of a hundred years hence will look back upon the present as the good old times," and wish they could be brought back again. We are living in those good times, and should be accordingly erateful and glorify God for the blessing He has poured cut so abundantly upon this land ana its people.