HARVEST THANKSGIVING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2028, 3 April 1890, Page 4

HARVEST THANKSGIVING.

WESLUYAN CHURCH, TEMUKA. The special services hold in the Yi esleyan Church, Tumuki, on Sunday last, as thanksgiving for a bounteous harvest were well attended, both in the morning and evening. An unnsini y beautiful supply of flowers, and sbmo magnificent fruits and vegetables, tastefu'ly -dispersed about the church, w> j re am pi a tokens of the ■abundant yields of the past reason. The Rev. 1?. S. Bnnn, who conducted 'he services, preached in the morning on "The mpstery of growth," selecting his text from Mark iv., 28— " The tarth bringeth forth fruit of herself, first the blade, then the e;ir, then the full corn in the ear." 'ihe following; is a brief resume of his discourse :

The biographical reading of the Incomparable Teacher creates 'he feeling of being; in a picture gallery, crowded with outlined parabolic scenery, the true cause of the "common people hearing him gladly." '1 he understood homeliness of parable material enriche ! the memory, engendering a res'lessnesa of thought that haunted the hean-r. To wake up a mil lilude it is possible that the Great Teacher pointed to " action " as in the former purt of the chapter. "Behold!" look, a sower sowing ; and we have looked at the furrows rising to the bright plough-share ; then we have looked at the dress of living green, covering valley and rd' iij hill ; then wo have lis'ened to the musical rat'le of the ripe ear in the autumn ivinds ; and then we have looked at the sunbrowced expanse richly studded with golden corn. It is meet, in common with ether Churches and people, to give expression in floral decorations, and to liny; the highest praises of tha Lord of Nature, the Giver of bountiful harvest. A religion without consideration of the " lilies " and "fowls" is a doctrinal fanaticism. The growth of an ear of corn : nothing is more common, nothing more mysterious. Why should it not grow % Is it not the nature of a corn of wheat to grow up into an ear, bearing thirty, sixty, and an hundred fold % Is it right to fail back upon Nature's processes in order to exonerate ourselves from the all pervading conviction that it is of God 1 What is Nature 1 What kind of thing is it ? What language does Nature speak 1 Where from, and what is the mission of Nature. 1 Is it from her lap that we receive the all bountifulness of the earth ] " Natura is but the name for an effect, Whose cause is God." All life has something mysterious in it. Life, death, and resurrection. " Unless it die it abidoth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruir." A man casts a seed into the ground, it springs and grows, "he knoweth not how." The grain when buried throws out two fibres, one towards the earth and the other towards the heavens : one for the root and one for the stalk and ear. It turns itself round tor development, gathering from earth, air, and sunshine, and we say "it grows," according to a fixed pattern, when it is unfurled in the summer's sun. This ear, contain from twenty to sixty, ur more, packages of flourj each securely encased in a waterproof envelope, each capable of bearing fruit again, and the whole number arrangod in a structure, which for beauty, or for purposes of shelter, or for commercial transit, could not be surpassed. Therein we see an mcrease of structure according to a fixed pattern, and by materials from without and changed into its own substance or substances, assimilation. Whence comes this substance 1 -From the air, water earth, and sun ; particles that have been drawn from around, and absorbed under the stimulus of the sunbeam and the earth's temperature, are assimilated into corn root, corn leaf. Particles have become alive, invested with drawing and transforming properties. Conceive by what is not—by what is ! If a piece of iron were to be embedded in soil, or iron stone, and had gathered from around iron clay, wood or stones, and changed them into brass copper, steel, and iron, and built them up into the form of a steam engine, with its complicated metallic fixtures, all would be incomprehensible. In ihe former instance it is moat wonderful that the assimilating materials of air, water, gas, earth's flint, and salt, should change into wheat, stalk, ch-.ff, and flour, and Ihe power of arranging according to a " fixed pattern." When soldiors form in line wedge, square, or circle, move quickly or slowly, this is because e ich man is intelligent : each unit has a mind. But to see (if it were visible), yet no less a fact, gaseous atoms, carbon or nitrogen, first gathered from the air, then changed into something quite different, and now moving about and hornemg themselves where necessary to compete the pattern, some to the root, others to the ear, with its chaff and flour. Unlike soldiers, they are devoid of sense. Truly, growth is a mystery ! This power and wisdom emanates fr.im a pattern forming mind, that aloiu causeth the earth to bring forth fruit, " fir&t the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." " Great is our fto.!, and of great power ; His understanding is infinite." The Spirit of Life is a Spirit of Thought, Order, and Power. The all pervading Spirit of God' who maketh the "grass to grow upon the mountains," " who so clothes the of the fields," and >who thus " openeth His hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing." Thanksgivings for the ingathering of the fruits of the earth -a religious rite—Feast of Weeks, Jrj'east of Harvest, and the Feast of First Fruits, Deut. xvi., 9-12, Prov. iii., 9—were commented upon. Where God givos liberally He demands liberality. Mr Bunn concluded with An earnest and an affectionate, perora tion, reminding his hearers that the harvest of the world shall come, God's purposes ripen to their accomplishment, as certainly as grain ripening for the sickle. Key. xiv., 14,15.