spoken or understood by any body of worshippers upon earth. Bnt I must forbear, and hasten to a conclusion. What now becomes you, my young friends, as Britons, Christians, and Protestants, but high and holy thanksgiving, not with your lips only but in your lives also,-personally, socially, politically; practical thanksgiving to the God of our fathers for the special mercies bestowed from the beginning on our favoured country? Special favours demand special acknowledgments. And who that compares the history of England with the histories of the other kingdoms of Christendom, can fail to recognise the distinguishing favour of God? What is history? The record of the deeds of ages past. Yes, but closer, Who performed those deeds? Who were the actors in the scenes recorded? Kings, queens, bishops, priests, statesmen, generals, armies, navies, courtiers, conspirators, mobs. Yes, but closer still,—Who sustained all these men and women, causing their blood to circulate and their lungs to play from moment to moment? Who gave them minds to think and hands to act? Who appointed their times and seasons; putting down one, and raising up another? In whom did they live and move and have their being? God rules over all ! Yes, and now we have the true answer to the question, What is history? Authentic history is only another name for God's dealings with the nations of mankind. And authentic history, known and remembered, supplies the appropriate fuel for the sacred fire of national humiliation on the one side, and national thanksgiving on the other. Of this, the Psalms of David, given by inspiration of God, and written for our learning, supply the richest illustrations. The principle is transferable. "We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what works thou didst in their days, and in the times of old." 1. We praise the God of England for the introduction of pure Christianity into our country as early as the first century, and, as many suppose, by the ministry of an inspired apostle, His holy house and His place of prayer; for the which he has justly destroyed many nations, according to the saying of St. Paul, 'If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.' And this ought we greatly to praise God for, that such superstitious and idolatrous manners as were utterly naught, and defaced God's glory, are utterly abolished, as they most justly deserved; and yet those things that God was honoured with, or his people edified, are decently retained, and in our churches comely practised." How seasonably might we now address, with all dutiful respect and unfeigned Christian attachment, to our beloved Sovereign, the words of Bishop Ridley to King Edward vi.: «We most humbly beseech your Majesty to consider, that besides weighty causes in policy, which we leave to the wisdom of your honourable councillors, the establishment of images"the endowment of Romanism-" by your authority shall not only utterly discredit our ministers as builders up of the things which we have destroyed, but also blemish the fame of your most godly Father, and also of such notable fathers as have given their lives for the testimony of God's truth, who by public law removed all images," rejected and repudiated Romanism. "The almighty and everlasting God plentifully endue your Majesty with His Spirit and heavenly wisdom, and long preserve your most gracious reign and prosperous government over us, to the advancement of His glory, to the overthrow of superstition, and to the benefit and comfort of all your Highness's loving subjects."1 Substituting Victoria for Edward, our hearts respond, Amen! Other characteristic distinctions might be added, did time permit; particularly that universal mark of true Protestant worship, the civilisation of a language understood by the worshippers, in striking contrast as it stands with the universal barbarism of Romanist worship, in a language not 1 Treatise on the Worship of Images. By Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, last page. thereby mercifully restraining our forefathers from the gross idolatries and debasing impurities of heathenism, breaking down the blood-stained altars of the Druids, and planting amongst us the sweet fruit-bearing rod of the stem of Jesse. 2. We praise the God of England for the indignant recoil of the barons, and of the nation with them, from the intolerable tyranny of the Anglo-Norman kings, leading to the successful demand for the Great Charter, and thus laying a foundation for the liberties of Englishmen, in our infancy as a nation, which other nations of Europe are endeavouring, and endeavouring in vain, to lay at this very hour. 3. We praise the God of England for overruling the necessities (from whatever second causes arising) of our first Edward --necessities which required supplies of money such as the nobles, then the only Parliament, refused to vote him, and induced him, in order to obtain the votes desired, to admit men of the middle classes of society into Parliament, thus commencing our House of Commons, that broad and massive fulcrum which has supported and still supports, in happy equilibrium, the splendour of our monarchy and the reality of our freedom; -a base so broad in principle as to be able to make itself broader, and thus practically to adapt itself to the growing exigencies of the state of society; bringing an increasing amount of regulated popular influence to bear on the executive government, and thereby protecting that government against irregular outbreaks of that influence. Enlargements of our popular representation have been the safety-valves of our constitution. Doubtless it is possible to make them too wide, thereby dissipating our strength and impeding our progress. It was equally possible to have kept them too close, thereby increasing incalculably the risk of explosion. We give thanks to God, in whose hand are the hearts and minds of all men, for the mercy of moderation. Look to this, my young friends; be "soberminded," and avoid extreme politicians. 4. We praise the God of England, because, during the darkest ages of Europe's history, there were still lingering spiritual lights amongst us; living embers of the faith, the indestructible faith of God's elect, though sadly overlaid and all but smothered by accummulated heaps of superstitious rubbish; and because a breath from heaven fanned them from time to time into a bursting flame. Yes, we praise God for those gracious tokens that our country was not forsaken; those stars in the night, and in the morning twilight of the coming Reformation. Such an one was John Wycliffe, who exposed and denounced the corruptions of Romanism, and translated the New Testament into English as early as the year 1380. 5. We praise the God of England for the Reformation itself; achieved through a desperate struggle, a time of light, a time of martyrdom, a time of victory. Saints of God, true children of the light, were raised up on every side-bishops, presbyters, nobles, commoners, peasants (male and female) during the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. It was a time of light. Rome, arrayed in desperate hostility against God, became drunk with the blood of the saints in the reign of Mary. It was a time of martyrdom. Elizabeth ascended the throne. Whatever may have been her personal principles or preferences, her public measures were Protestant; and it was a time of victory. Rome, driven to desperation, drew both swords-the spiritual and the temporal. The Pope excommunicated our Queen as a heretic, and absolved her subjects from their oath of allegiance. To the terrors of superstition connected with such decrees, he added the more substantial terrors of the secular arm, wielded by the King of Spain, who was then considered the most powerful monarch in Christendom. He fought, as he cursed, in vain. Whether Elizabeth, with the ordinary resources of the nation then at her disposal, could have successfully resisted |