SERVICE OF THANKSGIVING.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1918, Page 6

SERVICE OF THANKSGIVING.

ADDRESS BY BISHOP AVERILL, A service of thanksgiving for the coming of peace was held at St. Mary's Church, New Plymouth, last night. Considering the short notice given there was a large congregation. The service rtvas of a devout nature throughout. The Right Rev. Dr. Averill (Bishop of Auckland), who arrived in New Plymouth on his annual visitation of the Tarannki portion of his diocese, gave an appropriate address.

Basing his remarks on PsJrn Hfi, the bishop said there were times of joy and suffering in the lives of everyone, when the religious instinct asserted itself. These werte times when men realised they could not do without God. He believed no boys who had gone "over the top, and no men and women who had stood on the decks of torpedoed ships, had done so without a prayer to God passing their lips. There were times of j.oy when men felt must give expression to their feelings in praise to God. He thought that that night their hearts were turned to praise and thanksgiving. That was why they had assembled, and they would be better men and women, and stronger and happier for partaking in such a service.

Continuing, the bishop said there were many reasons for thankfulness. Firstly, there had been the surrender of Bulgaria, and then Turkey, and Austria, and certainly, within a short time, there would be the surrender of Germany—the last enemy. In such a service they were commencing to render to God what was due to Him for all His goodness and mercies. The bishop then said he thanked God for the spirit that had sustained the Allies through the dark and threatening days of the past four years. There had been days of trial and testing, but, in spite of them, God would be vindicated and right would prevail. He also thanked God for the relief from four years of intense strain and anxiety. He was thankful for dangers averted; for men and nations raised up when the issue of the war seemed to hang in the balance. These were not matters of chance, but of God's ordination. There was reason for praise in the devotion of Belgium and the French nation —its generals and soldiers —, and also for the spirit of the ''Old Contemptibles"; for that silent man of deeds, Lord Kitchener; for Lloyd George; for the brilliant generalship of Slarshal Foch, and the loyalty of the Allies under him. In fact, said his Lordship, all the greatest men of the war had been men of God. He referred to the great work of the silent Navy, the minesweepers, the mercantile marine; to the advent of America on the side of the Allies; all of which were occasions for thankfulness, as was also the fact that men like Generals Townshend, Allenby and Maude had been raised up for the war. He felt thankful for the patience of the Allies under seeming adversity, and now for the reward of their patience. Behind them all the time had stood God, and His great and eternal purposes. Referring to the coming of peace, the bishop said that if the Allies had compromised for peace they ivould have been guilty of a great crime to humanity and civilisation. The principles for which they stood were being vindicated, and there was dawning a new era of hope for the-world. He thanked God for the beginning of the end, which was destined to end war. He urged remembrance of those who had fallen in the great fight, and those in whose homes there were vacant places, and finally charged the people to go and work and pray for that better world for which the fight had been fought, and which we professed to desire; for brotherhood and unity, and for such conditions of life as would make war impossible in the future. The nation and the Allies had been saved—not once, but many times—from disaster, in order to serve; to be a blessing to the, world; to be the instruments in God's hands of His great purpose. These were the responsibilities of victory, which we must be prepared to accept. The service concluded with the singing of the National Anthem.