which you are all called this day, will be of avail for the
well-being of this parish, or of this country, or any other country
upon earth. For where the root is corrupt, the fruit will be also;
and where family life and family ties, which are the root and
foundation of society, are out of joint, there the Nation and the
Church will decay also; as it is written, 'If the foundations be
cast down, what can the righteous do?'

And whensoever, in any family, or nation and church, the root of the
tree (which is the conduct of parents to children, and of children
to parents) grows corrupt and rotten, then 'last days,' as St. Paul
calls them, are indeed come to it, and evil times therewith; for the
Lord will surely lay the axe to the root of it, and cut it down and
cast it into the fire: neither will the days of that family, or
that people, or that Church, be long in the land which the Lord
their God has given them. So it has been as yet, in all ages and in
all countries on the face of God's earth, and so it will be until
the end. Wheresoever the hearts of the fathers are not turned to
the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, there
will a great and terrible day of the Lord come; and that nation,
like Judaea of old, like many a fair country in Europe at this
moment, will be smitten with a curse.

SERMON II. SALVATION

John xvii. 3. This is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.

Before I can explain what this text has to do with the Church
Catechism, I must say to you a little about what it means.

Now if I asked any of you what 'salvation' was, you would probably
answer, 'Eternal life.'

And you would answer rightly. That is exactly what salvation is,
and neither more nor less. No more than that; for nothing greater
than that can belong to any created being. No less than that; for
God's love and mercy are eternal and without bound.

But what is eternal life?

Some will answer, 'Going to heaven when we die.' But what before
you die? You do not know? cannot tell?

Let us listen to what God Himself says. Let us listen to what the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, says. Let us listen to what He
who spake as man never spake, says. Surely His words must be the
clearest, the simplest, the most exact, the deepest, the widest; the
exactly fit and true words, the complete words, the perfect words,
which cannot be improved on