The Blackpool Herald. — 1882-09-29 (Blackpool, Lancashire, England)

UNITED METHODIST 'FREE CHURCH.  At the United Methodist Free Church, on the same evening, there was also a harvest thanksgiving. Corn, plants and fruits of various kinds were tastefully arranged in front of the rostrum, and on the communion table, and the musical part of the service was also appropriate to the occasion. The Rev. J. S. Balmer was the preacher, and founded his discourse on Isaiah ix., 3—" They joy before thee, according to the joy of the harvest." lie said that every season of the year came laden with blessings, and bringing divine bounty to man. Even the winter hail its advant iges, for it threw uc back to home life, and that was the moat important and most profoundly interesting of all life. Honest labour was rewarded by man's own feeling of self-respect. It was a grand thing when a man had done his work if he could look at it and say that was a good job. There were some kinds of work that would not bear reflection, and in connection with this very subject. Tue work of the mister, the brewer, and the distiller would not stied looking at. One of the saddest things in connection with the full harvest was that the bounty if divine Providence would be made an instrument of morakmurder, physical death, and spiritual desolation. Those in the drink business did not understand the effect of their work. As it seemed to him, these men were the perpetrators of crime against high heaven. A curious circular said a whilo ago that if the land used in the cultivation of barley and hops was in one plot, it would measure 44 miles square. On this land might be grown sufficient grain to make a stack of loaves 2,000 miles long, and whicu if put on a string, would reach round the world. All this had been going on while the cry of the hangry had been heard. If man were throwing the grain into the sea they might protest; but they were doing worse than that. The drink system of this country saddled us with a great taxation, besides blighting some of the fairest forma of manhood and womanhood that God ever made. It was true that all honest labour was rewarded, but to his mind it was dishonest, dishon, arable, and contrary to God's will that man should take His blessings and turn them into curses. He did not think there was a greater enemy to Jesus Christ than strong (hulk, and how a man could swear allegiance to Christ and the enemy of Christ at the some time baffled all his conceptions of Christianity. The joy of the harvest was also the joy of serving the common good—not a joy of seltianuess. In all nations and in all ages the tiller of the soil had been honoured. He stood at the door of the bread-roein of tole world, and he had the consciousness that he was living and toiling for the general good. The warrior had not this consciousness. He shed blood, and had to view scenes of carnage and desolation. He had neither in his prayers nor speeches sail anything particular about the Egyptian war. The fact was, he did not know whether to thank God for it or not. Ile was glad that order was restored in Egypt, and he could thank God for that; but he never could thank God for the triumph of war and murder. He understood that the churches of the land were that day giving thanks for the success in battle, and it reminded him of what Burns said on la similar