as successful: they took it just as it was meant;
and he rejoices in the thought that they did so. 'For this, that ye
sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you,
yea, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what
vehement desire, what zeal, what revenge! In all things you have
approved yourselves to be clear in this matter,'

Noble words, and nobly answered. My friends, you, too, are members
of a body: go, and do likewise in the matter of this Society's
failing funds.

* * * * *

May I boldly ask you to alter this to-day? This, remember, is no
common day. It is a day of thankfulness. The thankfulness which
you professed, and I doubt not many of you felt, on Thursday night,
has not evaporated, I trust, by Sunday morning. You have not yet
forgotten--I trust that there is many a one who will never forget--
what you owe as townsmen of this place, to God who has preserved you
safe through the dangers and sorrows of the past autumn. You owe
more than one debt to God. You owe, all England owes, thanks to Him
for the late bounteous harvest, thanks to Him for the present
prosperous seed-time: think what our state might have been with
scarcity, as well as war, upon us, and pay part of your debt this
day. You owe a thank-offering for the cessation of the cholera; a
thank-offering for the sparing of your own lives;--pay it now. You
owe a thank-offering for the glorious victories of our armies:--pay
it now. You belong, too, to an honourable body, which has a noble
history, and sets you many a noble example; show yourselves worthy
of that body, that history, those examples, now.

And what fitter place than this very church to awaken within you the
thought of duty and of public spirit?--this church which stands as
God's own sign that you are the townsmen, the representatives, ay,
some of you the very descendants, of many a noble spirit of old
time?--this church, in which God's blessing has been invoked on
deeds of patriotism and enterprise, of which the whole world now
bears the fruit?--these walls, in which Elizabeth's heroes, your
ancestors, have prayed before sailing against the Spanish Armada,--
these walls, which saw the baptism of the first red Indian convert,
and the gathering in, as it were, of the firstfruits of the
heathen,--these walls, in which the early settlers of Virginia have
invoked God's blessing on those tiny ventures which were destined to
become the seeds