PEACE THANKSGIVING SERVICE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2000, 8 July 1919, Page 3

PEACE THANKSGIVING SERVICE.

A united religious thanksgiving service was held in the Town Hall on Sunday afternoon in connection with the signing of the Peace Treaty. Despite the short notice, there was a large attendance of the public. .Mr R. T. Betty conducted the combined choirs. The Rev. Mr Rainc apologised for The, unavoidable absence of the Presbyterian and Methodist ministers. The service was conducted by the Rev. W. Raine (Anglican) and Captain Goffin (Salvation Army). The was dispensed with, and the meeting was purely devotional. Special prayers were offered, and appropriate portions of Scripture read, interspersed with the singing wellknown hymns. The service concluded with the National Anthem.

Special references were inside at the local churches on Sunday to the signing of the Peace Treaty.

At the local Presbyterian Church on Sunday morning the Rev. J. H. Bredin, in the course of Ids sermon said: There is only one feeling in us sill, a feeling of thankfulness, for war ended and a trosity of peace signed. We have lived through the worst war in history, incomparably (he worst. W o have spent four and a quarter years of the most tragie experience which ever fell to the lot of the people of lids planet to endure in all the coarse of its tragie history. We thank God it is all over. Our thanksgiving, must cover a wide field. We cannot go to the limit of its extent. We startl'd without an army, and millions gathered from all parts of the Empire when the alarm was sounded. A new consciousness of Empire has resulted. Those who wen! out from (be Aloiherland hastened back .as fast as ships could carry (hem when they hoard (heir mother calling them in the day of danger. We thank God for such an Empire. Then our Allies. Aten said Franco was decadent, Atheistic, pleasure-loving, everything which denotes weakness and decay. How foolish they were. They have been in Ibe front of every danger, exposed to every blast, yet standing ever like a rook during the storm and the onrush of waters, these sons of France, and at last giving ns a General who took

command of all the Allied armies without a mistake. The name of General Each will go down In history as one of (he greatest generals who ever lived. The Italy of Cavour, Maz/ini and Garibaldi has been horn again in the throes of Avar. The hated yoke of Austria has been broken on all her borders. “Italy unredeemed” has at last been redeemed by the blood and valour of her children. The smaller nations avlio wore Avith hs, Belgium, Poland, Servia, had the Avorst experience of the lion's mouth, and seemed at one time as if they Avero swalloAved out of existence, but the lion’s jaAv has been broken, and he has lied in fear to his den, never to disturb them more. W r e thank God for the restoration of Belgium, Servia, and most of all, Poland, Avhich suffered for ages one of the Avorst injustices of all history. What shall one say of our last and greatest ally, the United States of America, whose entrance into the Avar came late but came Avith such great effect. Wc OAve (hem thanks, and God thanks, avlio so ordered it: They are our kith and kin, they speak the tongue we speak, and love the Bible avc love. God has surely ordained that the bonds of this brotherhood should never be broken. A iicav hope for I he Avorld’s future has come through the harmony which has been established bet ween. Britain and the United Slates, a promise of better things is given in the inclusion of the lavo greatest poAvers in the Avorld in the League of Nations. They are the lavo nations Avhich, under God, are entrusted Avith the establishment of the Kingdom of God on the earth. Everything points to this. War is of the devil, and the devil in this ease has been defeated, but the devil will only be driven out finally by the instalment of a better/oign. It must be the reign of the Lord Jesus. The people of the British Empire and the United States believe this, and have been working for this at home and abroad. They have come to the conclusion of this war Avith this feeling deepened in them all. Wickedness-.must be destroyed cvcryAvhero, The reign of God must bo established everywhere. Wav is after all only the outbreak and culmination of Avrong, and if avo are to keep Avar aAvay for CA'er, as avc trust avo Avill, avo must not allow Avrojig to reign either in high or loav places. We must insist Avith a new insistence upon right thinking and right doing in CA’ery sphere of public and private life, in every relationship of man to man, in every relationship of nation to nation. This is what the Kingdom of God means. Let us pray God to keep Britain and the United States, and all our Allies, united in this sendee. We thank God for those who have fallen, Avho gaA-e their lives for us, and avlio have not seen Avith earthly eyes the end of the furious conflict in Avhich they so nobly did their part. We believe, hoAveA’er, (hat they see it all and knoAv it all, and rejoice Avith us from above. “We are safe, and they.” We think, too, of the mourners whose grief Avill be revived in these days Avhen so many are Avelcoming home those avlio have come through the fray alive, and Ave pray God to • comfort them. Let our thanksgiving take a practical turn, and let us live so as to prove that our brave men haA'e not shed their blood in A’ain, but that the blood

they poured forth is helping to cleanse the world from all sin and selfishness, and uncharitableness and wrong.