A DAY OF THANKSGIVING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2022, 20 March 1890, Page 4

A DAY OF THANKSGIVING.

In the Temuka Presbyterian Church Sunday last was observed, by order of the General Assembly, as a day of thanks, giving to acknowledge .God’s goodness (1) in the present bountiful harvest and (2) during the last fifty years generally. There was a large congregation present,' every available seat being occupied. Rev. John Dickson,- pastor loci, conducted the services. Appropriate hymns were sung, and a collection taken up in aid of the Maori and Chinese funds.' We give a synopsis of the sermon preached, dealing, as it does,; wi f h a subject of public interest.

Mr Dickson took for his text: “ The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few ; pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He send laborers into His harvest" (Mat., ix., 37), and said Is there anything remarkable in the paucity of laborers referred to here I Are not the workers few in our own harvest field without our experiencing any great inconvenience ? Yes, but the people ot Palestine have not got our labor-saving machinery, and do not want to have it. They are quite content to go on in the old way, and cover the harvest field with laborers, who, with a song on their lips, and a sickle in their hands, stand in and attack the ripened grain. Life in Palestine never changes. There, as in most Eastern lands, custom reigns as a tyrant king, and all without questioning obey. The Jews would as soon think of changing their religion as their mode of life, and that we know they are very.loth to do. They are totally ignorant of inventions, and innovations, and freaks of fashion. Travellers tell us that “ the material, color, and style of a woman’s apparel to-day is exactly the same os that worn by her great-great-great-grand-mother, and all women of that same class dress alike.” In the matter of agriculture this is very apparent. The ploughing, sowing, harrowing, reaping, winnowing,: grinding, measuring, and taking to market of the grain are accomplished in the same primitive way that was in vogue in the time of our Lord, and in the time of our Lord these operations were conducted in the same way as in the days of the patriarchs. There is an advantage in this. The Biblical interpreter revels in it. and many a Christian traveller has visited the Holy Land who would never have set foot on Palestine soil if all relics of the past had been obliterated, or if a great change had come over that country as in modern times has come over the land of the Maori, in which we now dwell. There the follower of Christ, who would-know more of his Lord and Master, and more of his Lord and Master’s dying and yet undying love, is delighted to find that Qpd in His good providence has preserved every custom and feature of the country as they were when the scenes recorded in the Bible took place, just as He has preserved in fossil form in the rock for the inspection of the geologist the plants and animals of bygone days. We require therefore to bear in mind the slowness of the process of reaping and the need of employing a goodly band of workmen which existed in Bible times, in order that we may fully appreciate the symbolism of our Lord’s lament, “ The harysst truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” After pointing out the various meanings given to the word harvest in Bible phraseology, the preacher intimated that it signified here the ripeness of.a people to receive the gospel. It was harvest time when these, words were spoken. The rich, golden grain invited the sickle, and our Lord’s auditors as they looked round and saw the whitened expanse whichever way the eye turned, and realised the need for dispatch ere the : winds of Heaven came rustling among the ears and shed their contents, must have felt the striking and appropriate nature of the figure employed by our Lord as descriptive of their own spiritual state. Many of them had come long distances to attend certain feasts that were taking place at Jerusalem : notably the Feast of Pentecost,' when the first fruits of the earth were dedicated to God as ah acknowledgement that the whole of the crop was His; and the Feast of Tabernacles, whsn the fruits were all gathered in, and thanks rendered to God for the year’s return. . During this eventful period of the Jewish ecclesiastical year a great influx of h visitors poured into Jerusalem, many of them embued with the thought that a great deliverer was about to appear, and as our Saviour moved through the towns and villages of Palestine,; and noted their’ teeming populations, the immense numbers hurrying towards the capital, crowds in the temple, crowds in the 'synagogue, crowds in the .street, and crowds by the way-side, seeking for that spiritual light and 1 knowledge the Scribes and Pharisees could not impart, He was moved with compassion, and spoke of them as sheep 1 without a shepherd, and said, Here 1 are people in great numbers eager to receive instructions, but where are the teachers to give it ? “ The harvest ' truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” Here we notice, that—(l) The world is the Lord’s harvest field. The Jews thought it was Palestine; the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire think it is China. Some in this country act as if it were New Zealand, and some fancy it lies within the four corners of the territory covered by their own denomination, but Christ set the matter at rest when He gave to His disciples the mandate “Go ye into the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” The field of operations could not be any larger than that, expept it had been extended to Tenus or Mars. It includes , every mountain and valley—every desert and marsh, every steppe and prairie, every isthmus and promontory every isle and islet, every spot on the surface of this planet where man has taken up his residence,; and erected his house, his hut, his whare, or his wigwam. There was a time ,when the idea of sending the gospel to the heathen was either not conceived or rejected as chimerical, and | even now,:in thpse days of knowledge, it is to be feared only a few here and there are zealously affected in this good cause. Li,ke the-natives of l -this whose intelligence we despise, we cultivate a few favorite spots here, and then with often inadequate returns, while vast traces of rich virgin soil lie-uncultivatedfand.waste God hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth, and who has constituted us judges as to whether a people is capable of receiving the gospel, which to all nations we are commanded to I preach ? The mercy of God is wider than that of man. The great dramatist was right when he represented Portia, for the purpose of softening the heart of exacting Shylook, as saying— &

“The quality of mercy is not strained • It droppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven Upon the face beneath : it is twice blessed ; It blesseth Him that gave and Him that takes, ’Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown.’ . What a field there is here for the exercise; of Christian plilantbropby. What grace of the human heart may not be called forth by the world’s varied wants. On a large farm there is work to suit every taste —ploughing, and sowing, and weeding, and reapiflg, and draining, and fencing, and herding—something for everybody to do, and who in the Lord’ s vineyard, that is co-extensive with the world, and contains men of all colors and opinions, and degrees of wretchedness and guilt, may say there is nothing I can do I We sometimes forget that the Lord has a vineyard, and much work to do. We are inclined to think that everything is ours : our farms ours, our cattle ones, our

crops ours, our merchandise ours, our money ours, all ours, to do with as we think fit. This is far from being the case. God by His creative fiat has made the world ; God vt ith minerals, plants, and animals has beautified the world ; God with men has peopled the world ; God with surpassing love and grace has redeemed the world, and now He owns by undisputed right every blade of grows upon the mountains, every stalk that lifts its bead upon the plain, every sheep that pastures the dale, every jewel that glitters in the mine, every gold nugget that adorns the quartz rock, and claims the homage and love of every human heart. When our Saviour was recommending a remedy for the fewness of laborers. He did not say Pray yet the Pharisees, or Pray ye the Jewish Council, or Pray ye the Church, but “Pray ye the Lord of the harvo t, that He send laborers into His harvest.” We all want to feel that it is the Lord’s vineyard in which we labor, the Lord’s work in which we are engaged, the Lord who sends the laborers, the Lord who qualifies the laborers, the Lord who upholds the laborers, the Lord who opens the hearts of the people to receive the laborers, and the Lord Who will give to the laborers at last their, eternal rewards. (2) The world is ripe for the gospel. The preacher here referred to the multitudes that waited on the ministry of John the Baptist and of Christ, and showed how the peace and free communication enjoyed in Roman dominions, the age’s spirit of enquiry, the universality of the Greek language, and the decay of the Mosaic economy, all conspired to favor tho gospel. “The world has advanced since then. Events pregnant in consequences have taken place. The world’s Saviour has offered a sacrifice of world-wide effcacy, and the gospel, accompanled by her handmaidens, civil peace, religious liberty, intellectual progress, and temperance reform, has sallied forth from Jerusalem, and, joined by the railway, telegraph, and printing press,, has gone on a tour round the world. Hardly a country that has not been visited, and scarcely a heathen religious system that •has not already received its death blow. Indian temples of Oriental splendour are crumbling in the dust, and idols once adored by the million are sprawling on the banks of the rivers of China, objects of .i derision to all beholders. The Bible has been translated into 230 different languages, and more than 70 spoken but unwritten dialects have been introduced into the of literary tongues. No longer is the notice seen over any church door which once appeared over Christian portals is the Cape Colony, “ Dogs and Hottentots are not allowed to entsr here.” Everywhere is it being recognised that there is no language so barbarous that it cannot receive|a translation of the Bible ; no human mind so dark that it cannot receive the light of God’s truth; and no heart so bard that it cannot be touched with the old, old story of redeeming love. Facts cannot be disputed. Moral wildernesses have become fruitful fields, and many a Christian community snatched from heathenism is to-day evincing a strength of faith and a purity of morals, and| a liberality in support of the Gospel that might well put to’bush those who have sent them, the lamp of life. This augurs, well for the succeas of the Church’s universal mission, “ O chariot wheels of the Gospel, the nearer ye approach the i end the more rapidly do ye revolve, and cease not to roll in your beneficent career through this world until all ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. How white unto harvest the fields are in this new land of ours! One hundred and twenty years ago it was an unknown territory. No white man had ever, landed oh its fertile soil or breathed its genial air. Three of Tasman’s men who, approached its shores were killed in Massacre Bay, and the defenceless crews of merchant ships were often in its waters ruthlessly put to death. Even the armed boats sent in by Captain Cook from the Endeavour were: attacked by hostile natives, and for a longtime the British Government refused to aid the exploration or : colonisation of islands famed for their cannibalism, their savagery, and their bad repute; When fifty years ago courageous pioneers began'the work of colonisation they found the country, overrun with gigantic forests and manuka scrub, and ferns, and flax, and raupo, and great swamps, and unbridged overflowing rivers, and natives who lived in whares made of reeds, and who were ignorant of the knowledge of the true .God, Now all that has been.changed. The forest have been cut down or burnt, ; the ferns have been uprooted, the’ swamps have been drained, the rivers have been bridged, roads have been constructed, railways have been made, electric wire “have been laid, and comfortable .homesteads and thriving, townships, and largo cities, and smiling fields,.adorn the laud. “ The pastures are clothed ,with flocks, the valleys are covered over with corn, and the little hills rejoice on.every side,’’ Pence reigns supreme, plenty shines upon us, British law governs us, British liberty is enjoyed by us,’ and life and property are safe, Churches have been established, Bibles have been disiseminated ; mission agencies among-•>the Maoris, the Chinese, and in the outlying districts have been inaugurated, with gratifying results,, and New Zealand has become, under the blessing of God, one of the brightest jewels of the colonial crown, Vv hat reason to thank God for His goodoees. Whore would we have been had we been visited with war, or famine, or disease ?“°_ DE , ou , r horde > cr °ps, or flocks, or if heaven hud not given us a genial climate and a productive soil, and a well-watered land, and large agricultural and mineral re-

sources, and blessed the work of our hands] Let us not bo slow in rendering to God according to the benefits we tuye received. Ingratitude and irreligion, with all their attendant evils, brought to ruin the ancient cities of Assyria, Greece, and Rome; and obedience to God’s revealed will made the Israelites the most pros- ■ perons and long-lived people on the face of the earth. What the Bible did for the Jews it can do for us. There is much need for the dissemination of its sacred truths. Hundreds never enter a place of worship. Many in more sparsely populated districts never hear the gospel preached. Christian work among the Natives is only in its infancy, and that among the Chinese is only begun, and much gambling, and intemperance, and and licentiousness, and worldlioeas, and godlessness (3) God employs human laborers. Angels would no doubt haye as promptly,cheerfully, and perfectly obeyed the will of God. upon earth as in heaven, so far as their knowledge and

ability extended, but not having our nature they could not sympathise, .with our feelings and wants. The farmer does not employ the clerk or artisan to reap his fields, but men who are more in touch with the work they have : got to perform, Mr Dickson then re ferrad at some length to the inimitable tenderness of .Christ in touching the tongue of the deaf mute, and the skin of the leper, loading the blind man by the, hand, and tatting up the little children in His arms, and from the action of our

Great Exemplar drew lessons for Christian workers of the present day. (4) Few ! laborers have as yet entered the Gospel. After attention to' the manner in which the different mission fields were manned, and the perishing millions still unreached, both at Home and abroad, and the. duty of the Christian church in regard thereto, he pointed out what might be,accomplished by a bund of earnest men who had given their hearts to Christ, «nd consecrated their lives to his service. It is said that the two grandsons of Jude, the brother of our Lord, were charged before a Eoman tribunal with aiming at royal sovereignity, because they traced their descent from King David, but when their lodges saw their hands, hardened by honest toil'on their little farm, they sent them home unhurt as true friends of the State. The sinner might well be charged with aiming at Divine sovereignty, but when the eye of Omniscience sees the scars received in the Christian conflict, and the services rendered in the Master’s

vineyard, he shall not only escape unhurt, but receive the “ we'l done ” as his everlasting reward. Mr Dickson concluded by referring amid rapt attention to the foundering of R.M.S. Quetta, off Albany Islpnd, in a calm sea, and asked, “ How many of those 145 who found a watery grave had done any service for Christ? How many of them if they had been asked, and had time to answer, would have liked to begin life anew 2 and How many passed into eternity without even an interest in Christ ? Let us each one hear the Master saying, 1 My son give me thine heart,and forget not His exhortation ‘Go work,’ not to-morrow or next day, but ‘to-day in my vineyard’ and curry about everywhere with us the burthen of our Lord’s lament; Who will now'say ‘ Here am 1, send me ? ’ In the evening Mr Dickson took for hie text “ What shall it profit a man if ha gam the whole world and lose hisown soul ?” and preached an earnest and practical sermon, in the course of which he said, speaking of the evils of strong drink : “This is why we denounce it and warn all against its insidious influence. A Yankee in Ireland once said, with a good deal of truth, when informed that a certain merchant had founded a church, a schoolbouse, and brewery e l lt appears to me that man runs salvation, education, and damnation.’ ” Referring to the fact that the world wont satisfy the wants of the soul, he said : “ When Richardson’s Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded appeared, the public tired of the affectation and deep depravity of the earlier school of fiction, and—sick of paints, and patches, and brocade,, and strutting airs, and the foul-spirit of immorality that lay, under the, garb of romance—received it with a burst of applause. Ladies' held it up to one another as they met, to sho v they had read it; mothers recommended it to iheir daughters, and fathers declared no gift was so suitable for their sons, and some aaid if all other books were to be burnt the -Bible and Pamela should be preserved. There is hope for society when such a spirit as that takes possession of it. Would that sll the men and women of New Zsaland were pervaded by it.” Remarking that the world wont stand our friend’ when we come to lay us down in the tonpueless sileneß nf t.ViA

leas dust, be said ; “ 3aany look upon Hume as the greatest of infidels. Others, who knew the man better, believed that the books which contained so many attacks on revealed religion, proceeded from an affectation of superior intellect and vainglory. At the time his mother died a Christian friend entered his house and found him in tears, and remarked : ‘ This all comes of your infidelity, Hume ; had you not thrown off religion you might have been comforted by the thought that she was happy in the realms of the blessed.’ Hume replied ; ‘ Though I threw out my speculations to entertain and employ the learned and metaphysical world, yet I do not think so differently from the rest of mankind. 1 Probe all infidel sentiments to the bottom, and you’ll find the same feeling underneath. It is the hardest thing in the world for a man, constituted as he is, to be an infidel. He may play at it, as a child plays at soldiers, bud there is no reality in it. He can’t get quit of the spiritual aspect of his nature, or solye the problem of our text. Speaking of the church and the world he quotsd a saying of John Bright that all would ha well if only the Church could get rid of the forms and formalities that fetter her and become more spiritual, and said that it has been remarked that the man who is honest out of policy is already a moral bankrupt, and so it may be said that the man who is religious out; of , policy is a bankrupt at the court ®£ Heaven. The reverend gentleman concluded by showing what it was to be lost, and earnestlyiexhorting his hearers to choose Christ rather than the world.