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1 
 
 THE IIESPONSIBILITTTA.TTACHING TO 
 NATIONAL CHARACTER. 
 
 - A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED AT ST. JAMES' CATHEDRAL, 
 TORONTO, 
 
 ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 1866; 
 
 BEFORE THE PRESIDXHT AKB MEMBERS 
 
 ., (!. 
 
 ■■JlrV,. ^ 
 
 «t 
 
 -fc-r/f :>" ■'. •■ 
 
 e S^t (^m^t*n ^otletg of €otoxdo. 
 
 
 GEORGE WHITAKER, M.A., 
 
 TBOYOST or TRINITT OOLLBOE, AKD CHAPLAIN TO THE BOOIBTT. 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE SOCIETT. 
 
 TORONTO: 
 
 HENRT ROWSELL, KING STREfeT. 
 
 1866. 
 
 > 
 
 / 
 
The 
 
 gifts T 
 
 dischai 
 
 a gene] 
 
 to whoi 
 
 by api 
 
 familia 
 
 new an 
 
 that on 
 
 stance 
 
 word w 
 
 curs no 
 
 would 8 
 
 by the 
 
 either ( 
 
 readily 
 
 Apostle 
 
 ished, a 
 
 those to 
 
 refer to 
 
 familiar 
 
SERMON. 
 
 '*'Oar conversation is in Heaven. ' — Philipfians, iii, 20. 
 
 The Apostle S. Paul, among other excellent 
 gifts whereby he was especially qualified for the 
 discharge of his high office, seems to have possessed 
 a generous and genial aptitude for meeting those 
 to whom he addressed himself on their own ground, 
 by appealing to latent sympathies, and making 
 familiar and endeared associations the vehicle of 
 new and ennobling thoughts. It is not improbable 
 that one of the words of the text furnishes an in- 
 stance of this skilful power of adaptation — the 
 word which is translated "conversation." It oc- 
 curs no where else in the New Testament, and it 
 would seem that it should rather be rendered either 
 by the word "citizenship" or "country." If 
 either of these renderings be adopted, we may 
 readily conceive that, by the use of the term, the 
 Apostle designed to appeal to a sentiment cher- 
 ished, as ho well knew, in the hearts of many of 
 those to whom he was writing, or, at all events, to 
 refer to a matter of fact with which they were 
 familiar. 
 
THE RESPONSIBILITY ATTACHING 
 
 Tho city of Philippi, as we read in the Acts of 
 the Apostles, was a "colony" — a colony of Rome. 
 The original- settlers had brought with them the 
 proud name of Roman citizens — they had trans- 
 mitted it to their descendants, and these descend- 
 ants were living in a foreign land, surrounded by 
 institutions and customs, which from day to day 
 reminded them of their illustrious birthright. 
 
 When the Apostle, therefore, himself a citizen 
 of Rome, speaks of our " citizenship" or of " our 
 country," to those who shared with him this 
 dearest of all civil privileges, or even to those 
 who looked with longing gaze iq)on an immunity 
 — a dignity — which they did not themselves enjoy, 
 would he not teach them, in a most impressive 
 manner, to measure the heavenly against the 
 earthly name, and to account more truly of the 
 dignity of the spiritual birthright, by thus bringing 
 it into juxta-position with that temporal distinction, 
 which they so greatly coveted or so ardently 
 cherished ? 
 
 And, if we would lead men to value aright 
 future and spiritual blessing, we must not seek to 
 effect this end by merely disparaging and con- 
 temning what God has given us for the life that 
 now is. His gifts are ever good in themselves ; 
 as His gifts they are His servants — His ministers 
 to us — setting forth His praise, and conveying 
 
 His fj 
 
 sumes 
 
 of the 
 
 and S( 
 
 gard, i 
 
 dishon 
 
 souls 
 
 And 
 
 fallen < 
 
 race. 
 
 tain fo] 
 
 langua^ 
 
 affectio 
 
 house, ] 
 
 places ; 
 
 " a hii 
 
 Aposth 
 
 Lord J( 
 
 family 
 
 most en 
 
 His en 
 
 tyranny 
 
 bind ot 
 
 all oth( 
 
 with al 
 
 source 
 
 both in 
 
 families 
 
TO NATIONAL CHARACTER. 
 
 3 Acts of 
 jf Rome, 
 bheni the 
 id trans- 
 descend- 
 inded by 
 y to day 
 ;ht. 
 
 a citizen 
 of " our 
 him this 
 to those 
 mmunity 
 'es enjoy, 
 npressive 
 linst the 
 y of the 
 bringing 
 3tinction, 
 ardently 
 
 le aright 
 ►t seek to 
 and con- 
 life that 
 imselves ; 
 ministers 
 onveying 
 
 His fatherly blessing : it is only when man pre- 
 sumes to appropriate them without one thought 
 of the Giver — abuses, instead of using, them — 
 and sets them up as objects of an idolatrous re- 
 gard, it is only then that they become occasions of 
 dishonour to the Almighty and of peril to the 
 souls of men. 
 
 And one of these gifts — at least to man in his 
 fallen estate — is the special tie of country and of 
 race. Every hope which we are taught to enter- 
 tain for the great hereafter is interpreted to us in 
 language borrowed from the objects of our earthly • 
 affections : we are taught to look for a Father's 
 house, in which are ** many mansions," or abiding- 
 places ; for " a city that hath foundations ;" for 
 " a kingdom that cannot be moved :" and the 
 Apostle, when he speaks of the Father oi our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, as of Him, " of whom every 
 family in heaven and earth is named," teaches us 
 most emphatically by what means God would draw 
 His creatures to His love and fear : not, as the 
 tyranny and jealousy of man would often seek to 
 bind others to his service, by excluding them from 
 all other objects of interest or of attachment; but, 
 with all the royul munificence of Him, who is the 
 source and author of every good, by constituting, 
 both in heaven and upon earth, in their due order, 
 families bound together under their respective 
 
6 
 
 THB RBSPONSIBILITT ATTAOHINO 
 
 heads ; so that, as our understandings are deve- 
 loped, and our hearts become more and more 
 enlarged, vre may pass out of the narrow circle, 
 within which we become primarily conscious of 
 parental care and susceptible of filial love, to the 
 appreciation of those wider bonds, whether civil 
 or spiritual, which have been provided to cement 
 the fellowship of man ; and may ultimately learn 
 to recognize, not only in the beneficent order 
 which God has established, both in the world and 
 in the Church — in the rule of the civil magistrate 
 and in the care of the ecclesiastical superior, — but 
 also in the " thrones and dominions — the princi- 
 palities and powers" of heaven — so many steps, 
 by which we may ascend to a less unworthy con- 
 ception of the supreme fatherhood of God — of the 
 treasures of love and wisdom and power which are 
 stored up in that Great Parent both of angels and 
 of men, from whom alone is derived all fatherly 
 tenderness and care — all capacity to guide, to 
 defend, to bless, His mighty Spirit enabling what 
 were otherwise but powerless and lifeless names, 
 to become living and potent types of His own 
 ineffable loving-kindness. 
 
 In the dealings of the Almighty with fallen 
 man, it is not often that we are called upon to 
 recognize indications of wrath unmixed with 
 mercy : we may indeed doubt whether any such 
 
 indica 
 race, 
 doubt, 
 of mai 
 of the 
 have 1 
 stroyec 
 preseri 
 their e^ 
 effect : 
 perceiv 
 least in 
 anger,' 
 discern 
 
 lying '■ 
 neverth 
 
 of the 
 
 Of SI 
 
 a sign a 
 
 fliction, 
 
 recti vre 
 
 out sigi 
 
 we hav( 
 
 realized 
 
 progres 
 
 the "oi 
 
 man, a 
 
 wholeso 
 
TO NATIOKAL CHARACTER. 
 
 re deve- 
 ad more 
 w circle, 
 9ciou3 of 
 re, to the 
 ther civil 
 ;o cement 
 tely learn 
 mt order 
 pvorld and 
 aagistrate 
 rior, — ^but 
 he princi- 
 my steps, 
 orthy con- 
 )cl — of the 
 
 ■which are 
 angels and 
 kll fatherly 
 
 guide, to 
 bling what 
 jss names, 
 [ His own 
 
 ivith fallen 
 d upon to 
 ixed with 
 ': any such 
 
 indication presents itself in the history of our 
 race. The awful judgment of the flood was, no 
 doubt, designed to be, for the future generations 
 of mankind, a dispensation of grace : the overthrow 
 of the cities of the plain we may well believe to 
 have been not only a fiery judgment which de- 
 stroyed the guilty, but also a fiery remedy which 
 preserved the moral life of multitudes, on whom 
 their evil example would have wrought with deadly 
 eflfect : and if, in these extreme instances, we may 
 perceive that the correction was administered, at 
 least in respect of our race at large, not only " in 
 anger," but " m ith judgment," much more may we 
 discern a gracious and beneficent purpose under- 
 lying less afliictive dispensations, which were, 
 nevertheless, visitations of human sin — rebukes 
 of the pride and stubbornness of man. 
 
 Of such dispensations the dispersion at Babel is 
 a signal instance. It was, indeed, a punitive in- 
 fliction, yet we cannot doubt that it was also a cor- 
 rective and remedial discipline, designed to work 
 out signal benefits for our race — benefits which, as 
 we have good reason to believe, have been largely 
 realized in ages past, and are still in course of 
 progressive realization. The ** one language" and 
 the "one speech" was no longer, to degenerate 
 man, a powerful instrument of advancement in 
 wholesome knowledge and in the apprehension of 
 
8 
 
 THE RESPONSIBILITY ATTACHING 
 
 truth ; it had become rather a formidable engine, 
 "whereby the growth of evil might be accelerated 
 and an uniform depravity of character developed : 
 and so God, by scattering mankind abroad on the 
 face of the whole earth, not only punished them 
 but saved them ; not only extinguished the vain 
 projects of their ambition, but preserved them from 
 a corruption akin to that which had provoked the 
 judgment of the flood. He sent the families of 
 the earth apart, to nurse in their seclusion those 
 distinctive excellences, moral or intellectual, which 
 they had derived from their immediate forefathers, 
 or which should be cherished within them by their 
 examples, or developed by their several modes of 
 life, or by the characteristics of the different habi- 
 tations " the bounds" of which God had now "set'' 
 for them. We cannot doubt the potent influences 
 of climate — of occupation — of transmitted quali- 
 ties, when men were thus divided ; while the total 
 estrangement which, in many cases, continued for 
 very long periods between different races, gave 
 full opportunity for the consolidation of that dis- 
 tinctive national character, which the history both 
 of the past and of the present places before us as 
 an indubitable fact. 
 
 We cannot expect, indeed, to read with any 
 clearness the vast and profound purposes of the 
 Almighty in His providential government of the 
 
 *Th 
 signing 
 
TO NATIONAL CHARACTER. 
 
 world ; but we may at least perceive that the great 
 nations of antiquity, as they passed across the 
 stage of time, lived and acted for some end higher 
 than any thoughts of their own ; while, in some 
 instances, we may very plainly trace how they 
 contributed, though most unwittingly, their share 
 to the bringing in of " the dispensation of the ful- 
 ness of the times." 
 
 One of our most illustrious British statesmen* 
 not long since traced, with great power and with 
 signal eloquence, the place and office of the Greek 
 people in the history of the world ; and no 
 thoughtful man can reflect on the fact that the 
 inspired writings of the New Covenant have been 
 delivered to us, by the Apostles of our Lord, in 
 the Greek language, without feeling the conviction 
 that, while " the isles" were waiting in darkness 
 for the coming of the great Deliverer, God was — 
 by means of the excellent natural gifts wherewith 
 he had endowed the sons of Greece — perfecting a 
 human vehicle for the heaven-taught Gospel of 
 His Son, wherein it might be transmitted to the 
 latest generations, teaching from day to day new 
 lessons, disclosing evermore to humble and faith- 
 ful hearts new tokens of "the manifold wisdom of 
 God." - f ,. 
 
 * The Right Honorable W. E. Gladstone, in his speech on re" 
 signing the office of Lord Rector of the University of Edinburgh* 
 
10 
 
 THE RESPONSIBILITY ATTACHING 
 
 ^ Aod, again, independently of the vast work 
 which the Roman republic and empire were per- 
 mitted to achieve, in uniting the different peoples 
 of Europe by the bond of a common political or- 
 ganization, or in opening up, as the pioneers of 
 Christianity, those great lines of communication 
 by which its heralds should advance, making " the 
 crooked straight," and " the rough ways smooth," 
 and thus preparing, with far other thoughts, an 
 highway for the Prince of Peace ; we cannot doubt 
 that the peculiar characteristics of the Roman 
 people were designed by the Almighty to further 
 his gracious purposes. We may read, in the early 
 history of the Church, that the strong, and as some 
 would say, the rude contrast, which the west pre- 
 sented to the east, was not without its use ; that 
 stern common sense and a somewhat imperious 
 contempt for dialectic subtleties — accompanied by 
 a resolute adherence to truths once for all deliv- 
 ered — cut the Gordian knot of many a controversy, 
 and saved the truth from suffering through the un- 
 restrained speculations whether of its friends or of 
 its enemies. 
 
 And surely, brethren, if we look to times more 
 recent, we have good cause to believe that God 
 has had His gracious purposes in moulding, by His 
 providence, the national character of the race to 
 which w« belong. Nor that the loses if our past 
 
 histor 
 anoth( 
 length 
 fusion 
 as the 
 intern 
 powers 
 stamp 
 racter, 
 fects, 
 pricele 
 Ifth 
 in His 
 tors as 
 excellei 
 upon t 
 preciou 
 highly 
 If w< 
 — is in 
 soon 
 away f( 
 us can 
 God's 
 spiritus 
 before 
 from 01 
 by whi( 
 
10 NATIONAL OHAKAOTBB. 
 
 il 
 
 rast work 
 were per- 
 it peoples 
 ilitical or- 
 Loneers of 
 Qunication 
 king " the 
 J smooth," 
 )ughts, an 
 nnot doubt 
 le Roman 
 to further 
 Q the early 
 .nd as some 
 e west pre- 
 use ; that 
 imperious 
 apanied by 
 r all deliv- 
 ontroversy, 
 igh the un- 
 riends or of 
 
 times more 
 that God 
 ing, by His 
 the race to 
 if our past 
 
 history tells us how many elements were, one after 
 another, introduced into oui* national life ; for at 
 length the process was completed and a thorough 
 fusion took place, and our insular position, as well 
 as the hostile relations which were, almost without 
 interruption, maintained towards the neighboring 
 powers of the continent of Europe, contributed to 
 stamp upon the English people a distinctive cha- 
 racter, marked no doubt by many foibles and de- 
 fects, yet ennobled — thank God — by many a 
 priceless virtue. ' ' ' 
 
 If then we have just reason to believe that God, 
 in His good providence, so dealt with our ances- 
 tors as to cherish and develope within them these 
 excellences of character, ought wo not to look 
 upon them as by far the most sacred — the most 
 precious — portion of the birthright which we so 
 highly esteem. 
 
 If we believe that our citizenship— our country 
 — is in heaven, if we seriously consider how very 
 soon all merely earthly distinctions must pass 
 away forever — how nothing which now belongs to 
 us can be borne hence, save that which, through 
 God's grace, has been made a part of our new 
 spiritual being, then shall we see that we must, 
 before God, rejoice in the name which we inherit 
 from our forefathers, not for any transient glories 
 by which it may be encompassed, but for ;hat en- 
 
12 
 
 THE RESPONSIBILITY ATTACHING 
 
 during honour which pertains,whether to individuals 
 or to communities, who honour God — who love 
 Him and keep His commandments. 
 
 Let us ask ourselves, then, to what points of the 
 national character we may turn, as Christian men 
 in the presence of God, with devout joy and 
 thankfulness ; what points of the national charac- 
 ter we should pray God to preserve to us and to 
 our children ; while we strive, with all our might, 
 that no difficulties presented by altered circum- 
 stances — no contagion of ill example around us — 
 may ever tempt us to forego our love of that which 
 was once so dear to us at home. It is impossible, 
 within the limits of this discourse, to enter fully 
 upon this wide and most interesting subject. I 
 will mention two points only, in respect of which 
 we must all feel how deeply our welfare, whether 
 as individuals or as a community, is involved in 
 maintaining the moral — or rather the religious — 
 traditions of our ancestors. 
 
 First, then, we cannot doubt how blessed an in- 
 struction God gave to man, when He uttered from 
 Mount Sinai *' the first commandment with pro- 
 mise"; and we have ample proof, both from sacred 
 and from profane history, that the Almighty did 
 then but solemnly sanction a law which man had 
 long before been taught to regard with the deepest 
 reverence. The fifth commandment is not only 
 
TO NATIONAL CHARACTER. 
 
 la 
 
 the first of the second table, it seems to constitute 
 a bond between the two tables — a hed^e to the 
 laws of the first table. It guards the duty which 
 we owe to God, by enforcing that reverence for 
 human superiors, in rendering which we can alone 
 learn to cherish any fitting reverence for the great 
 Father of our spirits. 
 
 I trust, then, that we may claim reverence for 
 parental authority — that reverence which is the 
 only adequate safeguard of true filial love — as a 
 characteristic of the English people. Time was, 
 at all events, when the homes of England were 
 graced and blessed by this reverence, and our 
 effort should be that, on these distant shores, that 
 old domestic virtue may be re-produced in all its 
 power and freshness. The breadth of that Divine 
 command, which asserts for parents their due hon- 
 our, extends to every other relation of superiority ; 
 the reverent and obed'ent child carries forth with 
 him into the world the germ of all submission to 
 authority — of a free and generous recognition of 
 every claim, which age or station or endowment 
 may have upon him ; and, in thus gracefully and 
 nobly rendering their due to all others, he lays the 
 foundation of a reverence for himself — of a modest 
 apprehension of violating the dignity of his own 
 nature — which is the very opposite of shallow self- 
 esteem and self-conceit, and which can never find 
 
'14 
 
 THE RESPONSIBILITY ATTACHING 
 
 place in any heart save that which has learned, by 
 Divine grace, to fear God and to honour all men. 
 Therer is a group of words, which St. Paul delights 
 to use, for which it is impossible to find any ade- 
 quate English equivalents, but which express ex- 
 actly that grace of the Christian character, which 
 is the result of a fine moral perception of that 
 which is due both to others and to ourselves. 
 2e/Lti/o9 and aefivorrj^i, which are in heathen writers 
 equivocal terms, are, in the writings of St. Paul, 
 re-established in their proper honour, expressing, 
 as they do, a decency — a dignity — of external con- 
 duct, a moral beauty of deportment, which can 
 ijever be exhibited save by one who is keenly con- 
 scious of the claims which others have upon him, 
 and studiously careful never to violate those 
 claims ; and who is, at the same time, very sensi- 
 tive of Vhat he owes to himself — very rigid in 
 exacting from himself his own personal obligations. 
 On such a man we look both with love and with 
 awe ; how unlike is he to the pushing man of the 
 W(Jrld — how very unlike the many who are moulded 
 merely by the accidents of the time. An ignorant 
 or contemptuous neglect of that which is due to 
 ethers, is sure to involve, as its ultimate consequence, 
 a frightful loss of all self-reverence — of all sense of 
 the dignity of that wondrous being with which God 
 has endowed us. 
 
 
TO NATIONAL OHARAOTSB. 
 
 15 
 
 But there is another characteristic of the Eng- 
 lish race for which we may venture to he thankful 
 before God ; I mean, their truthfulness. There 
 are nations, I believe, amongst whom it is 
 accounted the grossest possible insult to question 
 a man's intelligence ; a doubt of his veracity would, 
 in comparison of this, be regarded but as a trifle. 
 No deeper wound can be inflicted on an English- 
 man than the denial of his truthfulness and 
 honour. Long may it be so. Woe to lis if it 
 ever shall be otherwise. Is there any attribute of 
 the Almighty Himself which is more repeatedly—* 
 more emphatically— declared in Holy Scripture than 
 this? **A God of truth, and without iniquity,- 
 just and right is He." Let us not forget that 
 there are influences at work around us, which are 
 prejudicial to the maintenance of this virtue. 
 The fusion of the different classes of society is 
 dangerous to it. The undue admiration of ad- 
 dress and adroitness in the transaction of business 
 is dangerous to it. We have sad proof on every 
 side that, in the mixed society of this continent, it 
 is a virtue held in no great estimation. Yet let 
 us cling to it, with heart and soul, as a standard- 
 bearer would to his colours. It is one of heaven's 
 choicest gifts to our race, and one which we must 
 assuredly hold fast, if we would hereafter pass 
 within the gates of that celestial city, which is for- 
 
16 
 
 THE RESPONSIBILITY ATIAOHING 
 
 ever closed against them " who love and make a 
 lie." I believe that there are hundreds of sons, 
 trained within English homes, who would rather 
 die than pollute their lips by a falsehood, and 
 where this seed of good remains in the heart, what 
 a marvellous preservative is it not against innu- 
 merable evils, to which the practice of deceit at 
 once gives easy ingress. ' 
 
 Our attention has of late been drawn to the 
 political future of this land. We have felt that 
 the great question of our connexion with the 
 mother-country has been brought before us in a 
 very startling — in a somewhat painful — manner. 
 This is not the time — nor the place — to discuss 
 such questions in full, yet they have their moral — 
 their religious — aspect. Our Lord has told us 
 that " a man's life consisteth not in the abundance 
 of the things which he possesseth ;" and I am 
 assured that something far more than any so- 
 called material prosperity goes to constitute the 
 true life of a nation. There are a thousand ties 
 to bind us to our old island home, apart from any 
 advantages of military protection or of commercial 
 interest. These are thought by some to be very 
 weak — uncertain — bonds ; and it is much to be 
 regretted that, even at home, because the external 
 advantages resulting from the union are consid- 
 ered to be questionable or precarious, some few at 
 
TO NATIONAL CHARACTER. 
 
 17 
 
 least have ventured to suggest a separation, or 
 even a transference of our allegiance, simply on 
 the ground of material interests. There is a 
 national life above and beyond ali these, a life of 
 religion — of morals — of principles — of manners ; a 
 life doubted or denied by the materialist, but 
 cherished, as the highest and holiest life, by every 
 man whoso *' eyes are open." 
 
 When a great people consents to determine its 
 destiny solely by the answer to the enquiry, 
 " What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, 
 or wherewith shall we be clothed," it surely 
 deserves, and shall as surely inherit, the curse 
 which lighted on the murmuring Israelites, " He 
 gave them their desire, but sent leanness withal in 
 their soul." Leanness, indeed, for many a long 
 day of darkness and disgrace — abject poverty in 
 respect of every gift of soul and spirit — must be 
 the assured portion of those who would thus sell 
 their birthright " for one morsel of meat." The 
 choicer blessings of Almighty God can never attend 
 those who would thus ignore the highest endow- 
 ments and aspirations of their nature, they seem, 
 indeed, to realize but too truly the quaint, yet 
 forcible, description of the poet. 
 
 — — — but man is wanting there, 
 His yery essence melted into air, 
 And, iu his stead, a creature subtler far 
 
18 
 
 THE RESPONSIBILITY ATTAOSINO 
 
 'i 
 
 Than nil the beasts that in the forest are 
 Or the green field, but also cursed aboTe 
 Them all, condemned that bitterest curie to proTe, 
 " Upon thy belly creep, and, for thy fee, 
 '< Eat dust, as long as thou hast leave to be." 
 
 The continuance of our connexion "with the 
 mother country is mainly to be valued (and we 
 cannot value it too highly), on account of the I 
 powerful mfluence which it must necessarily, | 
 though for the most part insensibly, exert, in a 
 thousand diflferent ways, in moulding the future 
 character, religious and social — intellectual and 
 moral — of the people of this land. 
 
 " But, brethren, I must not neglect to remind you i 
 of the charitable character of the society which I 
 have now the privilege to address. Your offerings 
 are sought in order to enable this society to 
 extend more efficient aid to our fellow-country- 
 men, who reach these shores in need of succour, or 
 who have fallen into distress and destitution while 
 residing amongst us. You are well aware that I 
 the measure of relief which the society nas 
 hitherto been able to extend in any individual 
 instance is very scanty : it is probable also that 
 during the coming season, unusual demands may 
 be made upon it, both on account of the increase 
 of immigration, and, as is but too likely, by the | 
 prevalence of disease amongst us. 
 
X\-' 
 
 rO NATIONAL CHARACTER. 
 
 19 
 
 Should there, however, be no such unusual 
 demand, a far larger sum than the Society has 
 hitherto administered, would be employed, with 
 very happy effect, in relieving more adequately 
 the many cases of distress which are ordinarily 
 brought under its notice. I would earnestly im-" 
 press on all Englishmen here present {he duty of 
 endeavoring to induce others to enrojl themselves 
 as members of the Society, and also of promoting 
 contributions to its small funded property, which 
 might, with very good results, be largely increased. 
 
 In fine, let us recognize, brethren, our duty as 
 Christians, whose country — whose citizenship — is 
 in heaven. That is our true home ; and if, in 
 looking back to our early days, we can remember 
 aught for which we feel that, as Christian men, 
 we owe God thanks — if we can remember quiet 
 happy homes, in which we were taught to rever- 
 ence our Heavenly Father — to love our gracious 
 Redeemer ; if we can look back on sacred times 
 and places, the memory of which can never perish 
 — on kind words of instruction or admonition 
 spoken to us on God's behalf; then let us make it 
 our prayer and our effort that here too our chil- 
 dren and our children's children may find homes 
 like the homes of England — may be subjected to 
 the same elevating and purifying influences- 
 brought up in the nurture and admonition of the 
 
20 
 
 THE RESPONSIBILITY ATTACHING, AC. 
 
 Lord — taught to walk in the good old paths, to 
 serve the God of their fathers, to honour their 
 parents, to love the truth, and to do that which is 
 lawful and right. 
 
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 HSNBT BOWSELL, PBIMTKB, KINQ 8TBKKT BAST, TOBONTO.