out of the
world of Nature, and see in a harvest-field only man's cleverness and
energy. Let us rather humble ourselves before God, and see that it is
His Hand which sendeth the springs into the rivers which run among the
hills, where all the beasts of the field drink thereof, and the wild
asses quench their thirst; beside them shall the fowls of the air have
their habitation, and sing among the branches. Let us believe that it
is God who watereth the hills from above, so that the earth is filled
with the fruits of His works; that it is God who bringeth forth grass
for the cattle, and green herb for the service of men, that He may
bring food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of
man, and oil to make him a cheerful countenance, and bread to
strengthen man's heart. Whilst the unbeliever, blinded by his
self-conceit, is worshipping his own little stock of knowledge, and
neglecting God, let us be singing our _Te Deum_--"We praise Thee, O
God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord."

Here is another thought which will help you to recognise corn as being
specially the gift of God to man. It grows all over the world.
Wherever man can live, corn of one kind or another flourishes. "From
the bleak inhospitable wastes of Lapland to the burning plains of
Central India, from the muddy swamps of China to the billowy prairies
of America, from the level of the sea-shore to the lofty valleys and
table-lands of the Andes and the Himalayas, it is successfully
cultivated. The emigrant clears the primaeval forest of Canada, or the
fern-brakes of New Zealand, and there the corn seed sown will spring up
as luxuriantly as on the old loved fields of home." [1] All this
should teach us to see in the harvest the result, not of our skill and
cleverness, but of the good God's lovingkindness. Ask yourselves now,
my brothers, whether you are truly thankful to God for this harvest: is
your presence here to-day a real act of thanksgiving, or only an idle
form?

Among the many curious relics of the past which were dug up in the
buried city of Pompeii were some loaves of bread, looking just as they
did when they came out of the oven. Think of those loaves baked
eighteen hundred years ago, and still preserved as witnesses against
that wicked city. God was good to those people in Pompeii, and
prepared their corn, and bread to strengthen their heart, just as He
does for us. And they went on thankless and careless in their sin,