shortcomings.  We owe it to our wise Constitution, to our wise Church, the principle of which is that God is Judge and Christ is King, in peace as well as in war, in times of quiet as well as in times of change; I say, to our wise Constitution and to our wise Church, which teach us that all power is of God; that all men who have power, great or small, are His stewards; that all orders and degrees of men in His Holy Church, from the queen on the throne to the labourer in the harvest-field, are called by God to their ministry and vocation, and are responsible to God for their conduct therein.  How then shall we show forth our thankfulness, not only in our lips, but in our lives?  How, but by believing that very principle, that very truth which He has taught us, and by which England stands, that we are God’s people, and God’s servants?  He has indeed showed us what is good, and our fathers before us; and what does the Lord require of us in return, but to do the good which He has showed us, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God?

Oh, my friends, come frankly and joyfully to the Lord’s Table this day.  Confess your sins and shortcomings to Him, and entreat Him to enable you to live more worthily of your many blessings.  Offer to Him the sacrifice of your praise and thankfulness, imperfect though it is, and join with angels and archangels in blessing Him for what He is, and what He has been to you:  and then receive your share of His most perfect sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, the bread and the wine which tell you that you are members of His Church; that His body gives you whatsoever life and strength your souls have; that His blood washes out all your sins and shortcomings; that His Spirit shall be renewed in you day by day, to teach you to do the good work which He has prepared already for you, and to walk in the old paths which have led our forefathers, and will lead us too, I trust, safe through the chances and changes of this mortal life, and the fall of mighty kingdoms, towards that perfect City of God which is eternal in the heavens.

SERMON XV.  THE LIFE OF GOD

Ephesians iv. 17, 18.  That ye walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.

You heard these words read in the Epistle for to-day.  I cannot expect that you all understood them.  It is no shame to you that you did not.  Some of them are long and hard Latin words.  Some of them, though they are plain English enough, are hard to understand because they have to do with deep matters, which can only be understood by the help of God’s Spirit.  And even with the help of God’s Spirit we cannot any of us expect to understand all which they mean:  we cannot expect to be as wise as St. Paul; for we must be as good as St. Paul before we can be as wise about goodness as he was.  I do not pretend to understand all the text myself:  no, not half, nor a tenth part of what it very likely means.  But I do seem to myself to understand a little about it, by the help and blessing of God; and what little of it I do understand, I will try to make you understand also.