Daily globe., 1882-09-18
PLYNOUTH CHURCH.
Annual Harvest Home Festiva

annual harvest nome FESTIVAL.
Last evening, according to custom, q
very pleasing and instructive service was
held in Plymouth church, designed to i'm
press the lessons of the recent harvest on
the people. The pulpit was tastefully
decorated with combination of the vari-
Gus grains Of the harvest. The pulpit was
faced with sheaf of wheat and ivy and
other greens entwired appropriately about
the golden colored products of the harvest
fields of the state, while across the organ
in letters OF wheat were the words, set on
dark background, Harvest Home"
The service was somewhat out of the
usual order, and was arranged and carried
out with taste.
The opening anthem. by the choir, was
Barn by's-How manifold are thy works, o
Lord. This was followed by the responsive
reading of. the 1O3 psalm, concluded by the
Gloria Petri. The scripture lesson by the
pastor was composed of ap-
propriate< selections. The congrega-
tional hymn, and the second lesson from
the Psalter with responses by the choir
latter, by Hiles, ''The people shall dwell in
the land.'' The address of DR.. Dana en-
bodied some of the lessons of the harvest,
and were suggested by the words in /,
Samuel xii; "a: For consider how great
things He has done for you.'
1t is no formal service this, in which we
meet to recount our God-given mercies.
Around no other altar could such crowds
be assembled as that whereon the first
fruits of the harvest are laid, and about
| which the Offering of praise is offered. How
impressive is the thought, that through
these late months.
NATURE HAS BEEN DOING HER WORK
punctually and bountifully. She has
| brought to maturity the growing grain and
covered the earth with the tokens of her
| fruitfulness. In her domain what an ex-
hibit of order we find. There is no sinful
planet. no selfish miserly sun, there have
| been no conspiring stars, no winds disobe-
| dent to the divine mandate, no stingy
clouds reluctant TO drop the fertilizing
showers, 10 soil refusing to receive the
sunbeams. The prairies have produced
ungrudgingly, and hill and valley have
hastened to clothe themselves with luxu-
liant crops.
| THE LESSON OE DEPENDENCE
must be of great Importance, for it is read
TO Us anew each recurring year. When the
children Of Israel journeyed through the
wilderness, they gathered every morning
the life-sustaining mamma, and thus were
they taught their dependence on jehovah
We have had our mamma as really, though
at longer periods of bestowment 1t is
quite as great miracle that cur bread
comes up to US out of the ground, as that
Israel's came down to them from the
skies.
HOW CONSTANT THIS DEPENDENCE
may be inferred from the fact that the
world is as a whole never overstocked with
| food. It is estimated that there is never
on hand more than sixteen months supply
| The wheat in the world at. the close OF
any given harvest, it is said, would not
meet the necessities of its population more
| than four Or five months. We are there
| fore that close to a famine all the
while, and though we have not thought
of it the world practically lives from hand
to mouth. 1t cannot accumulate enough
in its granaries to be independent of the
| G1ver OF harvest yields.
| THIS IS 4 RED LETTER YEAR
in our states history. We chronicle nov
the largest production of and year. Oul
population has risen above $4,000 increase
in the thus far expired nine months. Ou1
railway system has grown fifteen per cent
and prosperity is on every side of us in
multiforln fulness. Strangers are amazed
at our material growth, and astonish us in
turn by their prediction of the future OF
greatness and development before us
The augmented responsibilities incident to
this vast material growth were then en-
phasized, and the moral perils of such un-
precedented prosperity pointed out The
closing appeal for the popular recognition
of the Almighty's goodness, and for sin
cere and general thanksgiving for the rich
yield of the season, fifty concluded the ad
dress of DR.. Dana. The whole service was
one of great impressiveness, the appropri
ate musical selections, so admirably rem
dered by the popular choir of the. church
and the tasteful decking of the sanctuary
with the tokens of the rich harvest, all
| combining to add to its effectiveness.