The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1881-11-08 00:00:00

SERMON BY THE REV. J. FOX.

Harvest thanksgiving services were held at St.
John's Church, Fortune's-Well, on Monday evening
last, when the ~ffertory was devoted to the fund for
putting up tables of the commandmsnts, creed. &c., in
the church. It being alao announced that the sermln

would be be preached by the Rev. J. Fox, late of
Christchurch, Weymouth, a cotuiderable party of
Weymouth friends journeyed to Portland. The
service wee led by the Rev. T. A. Ottley, vicar of St.
John', a,.cl the anthem was—" Pray for the Peace of
Jams dem."

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The preacher took hie text from Jeremiah v.. 21. 2.1
" Neiiher eapithey in their heart, Let us now fear the I.lrd
our Go,l, that kiyeth rain, both the former and the liter

in kis season • Ile retierveth unto us the appointsd weeks
of harvest 'Your iniquities, hiive. tunicl away t,hisse

things, and your aim 1;;;.; withbolden good ttdties from
you." In the course of his sermon Kr Fax sold

, _
text, my br,thren, shows us two particular things, sets
before us two highly important truth., to say the least of
it the one is national mercies and the other
. . . .

national guilt and the lesson we may learn at the
outset is this—that national guilt interrupts and hinders
national mercies. If we just glance at the text and sew
what we may have from our subjact to night, that shall do
us good what do we find I , •

I.2.oir—first at ustiotud mercy. It is by special prori-
deuces that God senile the rain ; both the former nod the
letter rain in his swots. We are told here that God does
it. I know there are a
.gri!st many people in the world

whoprete a ereat deal -it-E"OuTic‘tn7-anivi;;, just ci if
natural laws were not the outcome of the wisdom and
beneficence of the Law• Giver, jut as though natural law
could exist sport from the Maker wad Sostalner, receiving
God's providence", such as the heat, the light, and the
rain, which thankful and thankless receive alike, just
as if they might be taken, and little or no thanks given
for them, just u though they depended upon the motions
of a piece of machinery, and not upon the beating pulse,
tons of Divine love. I hope you do not treat God in that
fashion; but remember that heat and light, sunshine and
rain, are the immediate ministers of God. As we read in
the epistle to the C tioesiana, let chapter, 111 and 17 verses,
where the Holy Ghost teaches fit. Paul to say of Christ—
.. _ . . . .

" For by Him ;were all thinp crested, that aie in heaven,
and that are in earth, . . . and by Him all things
coaster—that is, are suffered to continue to live. And,
if possible, there is • stronger psesage in the let Hebrews,
3rd verse, where it is said of Christ—" Upholding"—that
is, sustaining, underpropping—" all things by the Word of
His power," according to His promise as you have beard
read to-night in the Bth chapter of the book of Genesis—
that God made a covenant—but it was on God's side—
God promised Noah that summer and winter, beat and
cold, should not fail. And God bas kept His word for a
good Many thousand years. We find it true to-day •, aye,
and the Lord shows there that it is by Him it Is done,
that by him the seasons roll on and Interchange, and the
seed time and harvest succeed one another. It is by the
great personal God superMtanding it. You see the star.;
they are kept in their places by the word of God; you
see the tun and the moon, and you tread upon this world,
and it is kept in ate place and they in their places, by the
Word of God, and the Bible says go. I want to know
where you can get superior knowledge, superior wisdom,
and immune-sense reasons than you can get in this
Book I Yee? well; moreover by special providence the
rain is withheld, and He reeerveth unto us the
appointed weeks of harvest. And, if there be a wet
harvest, iii. not simply because the cycle of things is so
arranged.b..
than. dritphmouidstarinie:idtasbulystiabensow:,
the Power of but the rain comes
wills it to be such. The world does not exist, brethren,
Independently of God; there are some people who go
about this world as though there were no God, and vet
they call themselves religious people, establishing a kind
of claim upon the providence of God, going about this
world, and eating the fruit thereof as though there west
no God to thank. It is good to hold harvest thanksgiving,.
and hence I am here to-night, by the kind invitation of
your vicar: bat Edo not tree why there should not be a
harvest thanksgiving every week and every day. I have
lied to eat bread every day, and why should I not hold in
my heart • sweet melody of praise. A harvest thanks-
giving for that basset I Its Giver by His own 'radon, loving
power provides day by day the daily !wait& I wonder if
you have th-ught of there things deeply and calmly ; do
you ever remember, deer friends, that this daily breed has
got to be &repented for by and by? We eocerUmes think
we have only to account for our religious privilege., that
we have only the Gospel to account for—lab? that will be
a solemn thing fl—and how we have used it. But there is
something else, and that is the use of the daily breed, the
use of the money and the other things we hare received
in the ordinary line of Providence. because they are His gifts ;
there is nothing we can passes that is not truly the gift of
God, for every good and jeerfect gift cometh down from
the Father of lights, and I may well may that every day
should be • harvest thenksgivine.
Then we are told that Nature's laws are under the coca.
mend of God, and He move* them according to His
gracious counsel and power. Not to keep you too long, let
me treat on the second subject in my text—eational
One of the great national mercies is • plentiful harvest. I
do not think we know how much we depend upon a good
harvest; when I look at my great city and think how
tench its prosperity depends upon manufactures, and
particularly upon trade and commerce, I must also re.
member that it is in • very appreciable degree influencel
by a good or bed harvest beyond one calculation. Bo it
does mean e greet thing for good in the order of a nation,
whether England or otherwise, when there is a good
harvest. . . .

pars on to the next aphject, it is suggested,..eleennly
suggested, by the text, end I can by no means introduce
the subject of barred tlianks,iving without introdoong
the second lesson, that of the 25th verse, from which we
learn that national prosp,ritv I. interrupted, hindered,
retarded by natioral guilt " Your iniquities," eays
prophet, "have turned away these thing., ant your sins
have erithholdttn good things from you. ' The Israelites
had evidently suffered a succelaion of bad barveeie, the
earth had not yielded its wonted dues of fruit and corn,
the harvest had not yielded its ine.ure. And then (1-d
sends • message to the nation—" You are mourning over
• bad harvest, and I will tell you the candid secret—l
have hindered the sunshine. I have caused the rain to
fall in order to hinder that golden grain frou ripening.
because your sins have been great." Is there any, appli-
cation tons in these words to-night? Have we had, when
autumn snowed, a very solemn and anxious time! True
that, though we have had • short harvest, if I may say on.
other nations have had an overflowing one, so that the
population of these islands will be provided for, and the
people generally will not feel the pinch. But I will
tell you who will feel the pinch; there is a class of
men called farmers, who do feel, and will have to feel
it. And is there any lesson to us in that God bee
been pleased to give no doubtful harvests—that is.
harvests that have felled to Yield what was expected of
them! Revelation throws a light upon it, the only sure
sad Infallible instructor says that the sine of the nation
hinder the prosperity of the nation, and we have every
reason to believe It ham been so now. When, but Angnst,
we had hoped for the bright venial weather. Ile sent no
cold drenching rains, and? tell you every drop of rain I
eaw runinded me of this text, and as day succeeded day,
and week succeeded week, the thing was deeply impresmed
upon me. One of the limns was this—" Man doth not live
by bread alone ; but by every word that proceerleth out of
the mouth of the Lord doth man live." It I. likely that
there is some such lesson as that in it' whether that was
the Di,itle mind or not I know poll bat we mar take a
lesson loco that —that the only true and living bread, the
only bread worth striving fee—worth "making • foes
about"—is the Bread of Ime, the Lord Jim. (lido.
And it Is wonderful, brethren, if you take hold of Christ,
how tho other bread names along with Rim' It is
...Tenons, when you put things as Scripture puts them,
bow everything else is made to fit in around that: it Is
wonderful how, when we take Jesus as our All in All the
bread that perisheth comes along, and all needful things
are impelled, so that we Christians can say with pool—
" I have all things, and abound I aspr upperf "
breren, I mean that England has got some sine h;
th
, confers ; I cannot look around and set the terrible stddes
erithattioninttithinlopekrlanngctehabta.God has a terriblemade 'monrrighl ou e
cootroversy trio;
Eoehni ; the .in of drunkenness, defended, too by men
who ought to know better, the sale of Intoxicating liquors
on sunasy, the national stamp of the devil, the impress
of the Legialsture, keeping the sahbath a broken day, and
men, educated MM. defending that Aye, and I might
eny a pod deal upon theses points—to not there another
tint the weuderful worldliness of the so.onuod
yoligioria "world, the eadoevoosiug to mix up hike with