Look at the heaven above us.  Does not that witness against us?  Has it not seen, for now fifteen hundred years and more, God’s goodness to us, and to our forefathers?  All things have changed; language, manners, customs, religion.  We have changed our place, as the Israelites did; and dwell in a different land from our forefathers:  but that sky abides for ever.  That same sun, that moon, those stars shone down upon our heathen forefathers, when the Lord chose them, and brought them out of the German forests into this good land of England, that they might learn to worship no more the sun, and the moon, and the storm, and the thunder-cloud, but to worship Him, the living God who made all heaven and earth.  That sky looked down upon our forefathers, when the first missionaries baptized them into the Church of Christ, and England became a Christian land, and made a covenant with God and Christ for ever to walk in His laws which He has set before us.  From that heaven, ever since, hath God been sending rain and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness, for a witness of His love and fostering care; prospering us, whensoever we have kept His laws, above all other nations upon earth.  Shall not that heaven witness against us?  Into that heaven ascended Christ the Lord, that He might fill all things with His power and His rule, and might send from thence on us His Holy Spirit, the Spirit whom we worship this day, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.  By that same Spirit, and by none other, have been thought all the noble thoughts which Englishmen ever thought.  By that Spirit have been spoken all the noble words which Englishmen ever spoke.  By that Spirit have been done all the noble deeds which Englishmen have ever done.  To that Spirit we owe all that is truly noble, truly strong, truly stable, in our English life.  It is He that has given us power to get wealth, to keep wealth, to use wealth.  And if we begin to deny that, as we are inclined to do now-a-days; if we lay our grand success and prosperity to the account of our own cleverness, our own ability; if we say, as Moses warned the Israelites they would say, in the days of their success and prosperity, not—­“It is God who has given us power to get wealth,” but—­“Mine arm, and the might of my hand, has gotten me this wealth;”—­in plain words—­If we begin to do what we are all too apt to do just now, to worship our own brains instead of God:  then the heaven above us will witness against us, this Whitsuntide above all seasons in the year; and say—­Into heaven the Lord ascended who died for you on the Cross.  From heaven He sent down gifts for you, and your forefathers, even while you were His enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among you.  And behold, instead of thanking God, fearing God, and confessing that you are nothing, and God is all, you talk as if you were the arbiters of your own futures, the makers of your own gifts.  Instead of giving God the glory, you take the glory to yourselves.  Instead of declaring the glory of God, like the heavens, and shewing his handiwork, like the stars, you shew forth your own glory and boast of your own handiwork.  Beware, and fear; as your forefathers feared, and lived, because they gave the glory to God.