The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1872-10-08 00:00:00

NT. JOHNS itmtvtsr THANKSGIVING.

Our notthernmeet church district held holiday on
Tmaday Ist, when its elegy and Iwo, returned Smoke
to Ahniglity God for 11is bleriege on the aewly-
eathered halved. Many and anxious VI had been the
forebodings II et there ihould be DO season this year for
jug athering the ureal Grope, we all remember how
romarkably wu the ancient prom's, fulfilled that her.
vost 'hall not cease, by the weeks of dry weather that
oupervened on • wet and "catching" summer, no that
.Ithongh the crop might be perhaps shorter than in
1 more proaperous years yet the weeks of harvest were
1 unt wanting. And again, although the d.y first tined
Ihe celebration was unfit for ouch a joyful occasion. for
t
acoount of the sudden and deep "wow that bad
j falhon on the (Varlet, yet the timn came round when
L the sea gave up it, dead, and thew, who had been
I .uff ring the pangs of suspense in addition to those of
bereavement had the sad eatisfution of the return
to them of their dear one's remain,. A est sutjee,
perhaps, to mention in eonnecilon with a harvest 1
festival; but has net Holy Writ likene 1 the deed body
of man to the reel-grain? And DO the bereaved ones
might have been reminded that, although it was now
for them to prepare to sow in taw, in committing their
loved one's remains to the earth, yet that this shoiild
be thought of by them as only the precurior of that
glorious harveet, of which the reapers are the enrolls,
and tho ingathered grain those who had elept ia.Jesits
perhaps Mng before.
At St. John's the joyful day was commenced early by
• celebration of the Holy Communion at 8 30, the
officiating milliliters being the Rev. J. Stephenson, hp
cumbent, and Rev. H. Sothaulley. The ishoreh had
bean very tastefully and appropriately decorated b; ii
number of ladies, who oommenced their labour of hive
so early as /hide, night. Gore had kindly been given
for the purpose by Mr. G. F. Wadsworth, of liadipole
Farm and AU wee eharnikuriv ..........d, end inue
1 epeisa:d with flowers, evergreen., and ferns. The font
I was the tare of Miss Cottarell who had almost covered
i the base with broad fronds of different kinds of ferns,
i on which bright dahlias mid clematis were planed; the
pedestal was adorned with the same in a different
pattern, and on tub fru were small bunches of wheat,
barley, and oats ciroesed, with a dahlia at the intersec-
tion ; round the bottom border of the bowl ran a border
of passion flowers and loaves, and round the brim •
similar border, the howl being filled and covered with
geraniums, ast.ers, ferns, sweet peas, roses, Mien,
timbale", and ivy, while in the centre was • small sheaf
of wheat encircled with oats and Bowers. The brass
tablet to the memory of Mrs. Stephenson had a border
above aud below, the work of Min Thompson ; that
above was of lures with wheat ears peeping out, and set
off with geraniuumand the lower one of fir and rosemary,
with esters and calaeolarlas. The rest of the work
I was the joint prooluotlon of Mias Younehushand, Mina
; Powell, Mae Payne, Miss Frampton, Miss Mein, and
IMiss Thompson ; and Me Misses Gardiner also assisted.
The pillars were adorned with simple wreaths of Bower"
1 with creased bunchy; of wheat ears set off with dahlia..
The pulpit was very gaily deooratod, and was • very
pretty right. Borders of ferns were set off with little
bouquet' of clematis with oats, and these were crossed
bunches of corn in front of each panel, and roses and a
border of luanortellea, geraniums, out, and mama.
Apples rosy checked and other, were arranged around
the ',haft of the Diatom, with dowers and loaves; and
the gee standards were wreathed with immortelles. The
organ bore erased bunches of corn, and round the
moth ling immediately noder the pipes was a border
composed of oats, flowery, and greenery, with some wild
plant beariog cottony bunohoi of filament. In the
chancel, the pinch of the reredos earth bore crested
Ws of corn, with dahlia., geraniums, ferns, end cypreas,
and ever the reredos we P line of vine leave., with
hanging benobes of purphi and white grapas, while in
the centre above stood a sheaf or urn riurrounded by a
melon. apples, grapes, and other fruit; the pilhars of the
"Menial were also hung with rich bunches of grapes,
and the o.pitols bordered with urn.
At 12 o'clock • 'choral iierviee was held; the intro.
deatory voluntary '0? 1 ively Peace! with plenty
crowned.' (Judas Maccibeusl, and Hanitel's Cironation
Anthem were beautifully played by Mr. Avant, the
organist. he services was Taut.',; Chant., Haver,
Green, and Aldrich; Te Daum, Linter ; Jubilate, Grind
Chant; in the Anthem the tenor bolos "Comfort ye."
and "Every irilley," were taken uy Mr. Tall ir, of
Salisbury cathedral. in most utteic style; chorus
"Giory of the Lord ;'' Hyena "Come, ye thankful
people, corny," and "I'raise to God, immortal prelim,"
Mock. Mr. Taylor hang with great taste and ex pressioe,
enabling the organist to accompany with deliewo and
I erudition. The choir also sang well, .howing that they
had had a greet deal of practise. The wev. J. Stephen.
NW waa mussed by the it-.. H. Bothatnloy, Rev. Mr.
Chem, a resident, and the Roe. J. 11. Poole, priiet
I vicar of Shorb. ' ,rne the latter of whom. intoeed the
1 genial Rev. 11. BothanCey rut the first IPAtIO. Mr.
I Ohaqi the Amend. and Mr. Stephenson the prayert ; the
I shortened scenic* appointed by the Uniformity Act
Ii Amendment Ant wee need, and was found to answer
very well for a special siirvion. The preaebor was the
Rev. IL C. PigOO. bf Wyk. Regis, who presehed the
, following well-reuotied se, moo :

.
Peal-a7calviii, 5,6, 'jet theta praise the name of
the Lent For He rinks the word, and they were
Mae • Ile commanded, and they were createi ; He
bath merle them fast for ever and ever; lie hath given
Shorn a law which shell not be broken?
We hove met together, t,-lay, brethren, to thank
God for lie mercies to on in th., harvest jest gsthered
in. It happens too that w, have met in very oriole
nearnete in point of time to Ilicheelmaii I.)ay. Now
the thought which our church by its collect has con-
nelted with Micheelmaoday is the wonderful order In
which God hos coottitateri things—" who hut ordained
and constituted the serviree of angels and men in a woo-
delta! order," &tit to a thoughtful mind, one of the
c.hh-f things luccestivi, I Click, by the annual harvest
is the fame hira,that of the order In which the fixed and
steady law under wlvoh, God has arranged things. Tito
harvest den not come at haphantrd, sometimes in
spring, sometime., in autumn, sometimes twine a year,
sometimes not at all. There is an order under which
It is coustituted and fixed; each and every year it
come,.' a nettled time.

And it is this subject which I wish to make the sub.
jsot of our thoughts to-day—God our Creator—and
that a Creator in order, by law, rule, and method—
cot like • child at play, fluttering without connection
from one thing to another, (showing power and skill
indeed but all at random, fitfully, and any how); but
as the thoughtful provident workman with a plan in
his mind, and each act he dootearried out on thst plan.
They tell us, inieed, wonderful things of that order.
From the simplest oorabinations of obetnistry, and the
minutest object to be detected by the most powerful
microscope, to the largest operation, on thit earth of
airy, the path of the winds, the flow of the tide', or the
return of the season., on to the most distant and magni-
ficent constellations of the sky, everything moves or
is moved, acts or is acted upon, after law ; nothing
hills out by chance, everything has it. distinct why and
wherefore, its 6x• d succession and order. This is being
ehown to us dm/ by day by more and more umaistakee
able proofs. Now very naturally • fear hae risen in
the minds of those whose heart• God haa touched with
fear and love of Him, lest this should hurt teligion, hist
it should be putting God out of His place in the world,
and, more even than He is, out of the mind and
thoughts of men; that it is as it were derogating from
Ilia honour, if it is supposed that the wont goes on by
a lined unabashed system instead of by the oonstant
and active loterferenee of Ills hand,—that it is as it
were denying the action of God if you suppose, for
instance, that a disease, say cholera or cattle plague,
tbirnes and goes according to certain go-called natural
laws, and not, as it were, on each occasion, by the
direct command of God. I think this La a very natural
feeling to arise in the minds of religious men, eepe4i.
ally as Prim the very ooncludon which unbelieving men,
with great triumph, draw from the fact,; but I think
it is • mistaken one. Ido not think—granted the fact
it is one that derogates from God's honour, or with.
draws His band as the Creator and Preserver of all
things (visible and ionsible. Grant, and I will take
for instanoe, the widest claim that yet has been made
in this direction, grant that once all that now makes
up our Solar System, sun, and earth, and plants, was •
bail of incandescent gee, rapidly revolving. Grant
knat by the natural laws fixed In that hall, in course of
time it threw off ring after ring of thin incandescent
gas, till at last the centre shrank up inter what is now
our sun; that each of these rings gathered and eon-
doused Into planets, that in that ring which is now oar
earth, this Vey nee little by little grew colder and
collar, till at het • solid cruet was found on its sur-
face, and rain collected into rivers and oceans, that, as
time wont on, by the motion of these rains sad rivers,
•rid fiery movement, beneath the crust, the earth was
hid out in all that variety or bill and vale, Ica
and land, like what wo have now. Grout, if
you like, that by the oction of these an.
Interns! laws belingio.l to it, life at last broku out of
the earth, in the simplest form conceivable: grist that
out from there simple form or forms have been developed
by tan action of these came nntortl I Int ii that in-
finite variety of vegetable and animel life which now
stocks and clothes and adorns every inch almost of land
and aoa • grant that this earth as It waits now, with all
its orderly strata of soil and o,el toil mineral brluor,
with all that grows and lint and te.s and is on its sir-
face, is the result of natural laws (tarried ou through
every stage of pecan's, from the original state ol in-
candencent gas to is present condition—grant all this,
and those who know anything of the subject koow
that I am orantiug • groat "eel MOTO than ta by any
moans yet proved or acknowledged—yet even so, what
then? Cow duos thi. take anything from the power and
tie wisdom ol the Creator, who first formed that in-
cindoec nt gee, and fixed those !awe upon it, of which
the prerent state of thlW4ll we are toll I. the result?
now dues ttlis &It, the feet that the bread I eat under
this Oodeestablithed arch r is as truly the act of God as
if it was dropped every day intotay bands straight from
Heave:it—that the rain that falls and the sun that
shines is ae distinctly Guirs doing when bee, as is the
cam, by action of natutal laws fixed by Him, as if they
were sent by His direct oonitnaorl rash time? If I take
• dial-plate, slid minute by minute laboriously change
the plats of the minute bawl with my own fingers, so
that it keope time, is that in any way more my doing
than if I make a set of 'lrks which, without my actual
momentary fingering, wiil make the bend go round
omeutli ? It see= to me indeed, that if the world be
formed as tEut connoted, it is only • thontant times
a more Ivor:O. rfal arid astonishing exhibition of the
power and greaki,n and wisdom of God Almighiy, 'Lan
if we i.upputo a. funned in •secossive acts of creation,
loirte tut meal, or bowevot foe. Sorely the noble oak
of • for. Pt lee gr, ator island of we low end power,
grown up as it ha. inch by inch out of • littdr Room
dropped uu tie grialudsome 1000 f•crs ago than if each &ensilage bagel and twig and leaf bad beau separately
made and then all glued up as it were and fastened to-
getbar. This Doble church U. which we are gathered—
which architect should we have thought the one of
greatest skill and pewee ?—the one who built and son-
etrusted it In the way it wee, mob atone lahl his 11• Par•