We have no right
to pride ourselves on being Englishmen, if we do the very things
which our forefathers were ashamed to do even when they were
heathens. They honoured their fathers and mothers. Do we? They
were loyal and obedient to law. Are we? They were chaste and clean
livers: adultery was seldom heard of among them; and, when it was,
they punished it in the most fearful way: while what astonished
that old Roman gentleman, of whom I spoke, most of all, was the pure
and respectable lives of the young men and women. Is it so now-a-
days among us, my friends? They were honest, too, and just in all
their dealings. Are we? They were true to their word; no men on
earth more true. Are we? They hated covetousness and overreaching.
Do we? They were generous, open-handed, hospitable. Are we? My
friends, this was the old English spirit, which God accepted in our
forefathers. Is it in us now? We must not pride ourselves on it,
unless we have it. Nay, more, what is it but a shame to us, if,
while our forefathers were good heathens, we are bad Christians?
They had but a small spark, a dim ray, as it were, of the light
which lighteth every man who comes into the world: but they were
more faithful to that little than many are now, who live in the full
sunshine of God's gospel, in the free dispensation of God's spirit,
with Christ's sacraments, Christ's Churches, means of grace and
hopes of glory, of which they never dreamed.
Pages:
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338