MAINE STATE POMOLOGICAE SOCIETY, ANNUAL 



MEETING. 



Watervii^le, Maine, November 10-12, 1908. 



INVOCATION. 



Prof. Hatch. 



We thank thee, our Father, for every opportunity that comes 

 to us for the increase of our knowledge of the things of the 

 earth and of the working of thy spirit throughout all the 

 processes of nature. We thank thee that the call of God is a 

 call to learn, to know. That is one of the first calls that came 

 to man. By his own intuitions and by the necessities of his life 

 was he called to go out and to subdue the earth. And we thank 

 thee that in obedience to this call men have been subduing the 

 earth by cultivating it, have been learning its secret processes 

 and have been changing through cultivation the waste places of 

 earth until they blossom and bring forth fruit. We thank 

 thee, our Father, that thou art ofifering to man the gifts of the 

 earth, for his cultivation, for his improvement. We pray that 

 we may not forget that thou art offering to man also the fruits 

 of heaven for man's cultivation, improvement, and for the 

 working of them into his life until they become part of his very 

 being. So we pray that in all our understanding and getting of 

 knowledge we may get wisdom and understand thee, thy pur- 

 pose concerning us, — not simply concerning our physical life, 

 the material things which thou art showering upon us, but also 

 concerning our soul, our spiritual life, and concerning the 

 spiritual things which thou art showering upon us, offering to 

 us in fullest abundance, that we may cultivate and develop life 

 according to thy plan and purpose. We pray that these meet- 

 ings now beginning may be of great inspirational value to those 

 who attend, and that this value may come, enriched by the 

 medium through which it comes, the heart and mind of those 

 who attend, to others, — inspirational value for better work in 

 the earth and concerning the things of earth, and also inspira- 

 tional value concerning that spirit which is working in the midst 

 of the earth, and in whose hands we are, and to whom we 

 belong, and unto his name shall be the praise and the glory 

 forever. Amen. 



