HARVEST THANKSGIYINGS

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13557, 30 March 1908, Page 2

HARVEST THANKSGIYINGS

- HI. MAKY'S.

The annual servie.s of thanksgiving for j harvest were held at Si. Maiy's Church, | Timaru, yesterday. Young ladies had spent soiiio lime and applied skill and taste in preparing and setting up some appropriate decorations of corn, autumn Bowels and fading leaves; the choir sang selected anthems and led the- flinging of harvest hymius; and tho Ven. Archdeacon Harper preached appropriate sermons. Tlieie was iv good congregation in the morning, and in the evening the church was filled. At the morning service ths Archdeacon dealt generally with the duty and happiness of giving thanks to God for His manifold gifts, but especially for the gift of an abundant lmrvuit ; and pointed out how, beginning with gratitude for material blessings, n.an attained to gratitude for spiritual blessings: At the evening service, taking as his text Psalm 148, • 14, "He maketh peace in thy borders, and. tilleth thee with the flour "of wheat," the Archdeacon dealt with coin as the unique gift of God to man. Ono could nor' name anything moi'e indispensable to'the welfare of body and mind, to individual or national progress. One could not imagine the- civilisation of the world being maintained without the cereal foods. With the loss of them the nations must dwindle and pass away. The proverbial wisdom of all ages had called bread the " staff of life," because it was the one great necessity of life, and Our Lord in his prayer summed up all petitions for material things in one phrase, ".Give, us this day; our daily brpd." The oldest records known, the earliest chapters jof the Bible, made, mention of corn in the 1 -words "every herb bearing seed," these referring in the .old .Hebrewlanguage to the cereals—wheat, oats, barley,- rice and maize-. <. The promise jnade to the survivors -of lha Flood included assurance of "seed time and harvest." The researches of geologists into the past history of the earth brought to light the interesting fact that- the earth passed through' a long course of .preparation before man became an inhabitant of its surface ; how for long ages before man appeared the-earth was the-, homo of monstrous .animals (casts, and actual .remains, of some of which could be seen in tha Christchurch' Museum), with whom mcin could not possibly have lived' coniemporaneously. The course of preparation involved developments and changes in animals and plante, until these became almost the same as those of to-day. In their researches the geologists'had found relics of very ancient races, and a remarkable fact concerning them was thai they were possessed of cqrn. .Coin was found in connection withj human relics; never before. So much science had. proved, regarding the preparation of the earth'for man. When man appealed,.he was sup-, plied with the* gteatesfc Accessary of life. That corn was a special git was also seen in the fact, that it ,upoh the care of man for' ite -preservationand propagation! It was nowhere found grow-. Some people might say that it had been developed from * wild grass, bufc that bad not been . found and; ■developed -intor''grain./ ~ Coming .down jto Jlater days than the old' Swiss ai)H'ltalian J'lake dwellings,", among, the buried ruins of which carbonised grain had been; found, the-. Archdeacon spoke of flie"<; finding • of wheat in the oldest of Egyptian tombs, some of it carbonised, but some no- well; preserved-, that it.' germinated aud multiplied and .furnished, bread as the same wheat had done thousands of years ago. -Jts whole history .showed that "corn, was j-[ he' unique: material 'gift of God itoman. All fruits and vegetables had bseh' developed from wild originals, but .these were know ; n.".' .Not. so,- the,. origin-.of corn. j)here ws.no evidence of its developmentfrom any- -wild-stock;' it seemed, that God f;ave it to man in it«, perfection'; and cyer in'Qiftit' fed' depended A upon lrtau .for, itspreseTvationj for. neglected" ifr. quickly perished. -. It was thus a*kind of practical parable,_ teaching, that all-' God's •gifts must ba used, or' they would be lost. . And 'success in its ■ cultivation was also the gift of God.r -No occupation was; So precarious .as , that-of the farmer. 'He might work and., strive, arid rack his braics, but; af,ter all it was ; God who gave' the Harvest. , How ....great •:-' therefore/was \the duty of gratitude for the harveut. • ■ Peoirie sere< too apt" to; take, everything as 'tors''of. course. .; Little children might- be excused; for eating'whatever, was put; before them' without a thought of- the giver, brut grown persons should not be;ungrateful. ■ There were so many—rinnumerable-r----blessings in life to be- thankful (for, and the tiabit of thankfulness was a source of the greatest joy, and a grateful Christian, he believed, would do his work better in the world than anyone else, : showing .greater conscientiousness -anld patience in it. Trne.ijeligion, inspired by .gratitude to God, would save mankind frpm .' that terrible curse of so many lives, the habit of discontent, the sour spirit of grumbling the . petuimism which seemed-to bo descending on,the present generation Jikts a. cloud, hiding the sun,of enjoyment of life. Contentment, bom of gratitude . for what God had given, was worth all tho gold efrer coined, all the jewels ever dug out of. the earth, and the humblest Christian might have, that, by cultivating, the spirit of thankfulness that was the lesson of the parable of the-corn.