the wide teaching of Christian theology the noblest and profoundest solution of the problems of nature and man; who can see, as St. Paul saw, in Christ the Eternal Word, the source and goal of all created things, and the first-fruits of the new spiritual creation -all can find room and guidance, all can worship side by side in the great Church of Christ.

It is, then, finally, because the teaching of Christianity about God is so infinitely lofty that we say it is not a superstition. It is true that we have by no means, all of us, grasped its teachings about God.

Which of us can dare to say that he has sounded the depths of our Lord's words about the Father, or mastered the spiritual teaching of St. John, or the theology of St. Paul? We dare not say that any man or any Church has as yet entered on the full inheritance of the truths of revelation. There are treasures still for us and for future ages to explore. We can exclaim with St. Paul at the depth of the unsearchable riches of God, and see that the wisdom of God is inexhaustible in length and depth and breadth and height.

of what I

The practical duties which arise out have been saying are plain and weighty. They are, in the first place, charity, and the absence of all contempt or sneering in speaking of the more elementary form of religious belief held by others. In the next place, the duty of holding to the forms till you get the spirit, assured that there always is the inner spirit as well as the outer form. And, lastly, the duty of making truthfulness of thought about God, along with all reverence for authority and modesty of heart, one of your supreme aims in life.

These are the principles in dealing with supersti

tion in yourself and others, and they will make you a better Christian in yourself, and more helpful to others who are struggling upwards to the light of God, as it is revealed to the world in the face of Jesus Christ.

XV

HOW BEST TO SERVE OUR COUNTRY1

"For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will wish thee prosperity. Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek to do thee good."-PSALM CXxii. 8, 9.

DID you ever realise that of this book, the Bible, which God has given us to be the key to our human and divine nature, and therefore at once the guide of our life on earth and the revelation of our life in heaven-did you ever realise that a very large part of it is occupied with the patriotic struggles and wars of the most stubbornly patriotic nation that the world has ever seen? From the time when Moses led them out of Egypt, when they fought and wandered in the desert; from the wars under Joshua and the Judges, under Gideon and Jephtha and Deborah ; from the wars under Samuel and David (like that battle you have just listened to in this evening's lesson); wars under the kings; with Philistines and Moabites, with Ammonites and Edomites, with Syrians and Assyrians, till they were all carried

1 Preached in the nave of Bristol Cathedral on Sunday evening, 7th November 1886, to the Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers, the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, the Bristol Engineer Volunteers, and the Clifton College Cadets.

away captive; and then wars under the Maccabees, and wars with the Romans, till once more Jerusalem was destroyed and the nation broken up,-a large part of the history of Israel is of this fierce patriotism, unquenchable, indestructible.

This book, which so puts before us the history of a nation fighting for its existence century after century, is by God's appointment the book He uses to teach us how to serve Him. This book is the manual of every patriot as well as of every servant of God. I hope you study it and love it. In it we learn how best to serve our country as well as our God. How comes it that this nation was chosen as the vehicle of revelation; that we still chant its psalms, that its prophets are the great preachers of the world, and that it was from this nation that our Lord Jesus Christ was born after the flesh ? What does this selection mean? It means that the most elementary principle which the men who compose a nation must learn is the duty of service of our country. It is a sanction to the principle of wars of self-defence. It is the sanction of such a sight as we see here to-night, men in the uniform of the defenders of their country, assembled in this great cathedral for the worship of God.

My sermon is on How best to Serve our Country. The teaching of the Old Testament, not superseded though it is added to in the New, is that the public spirit and patriotism of the people is the first condition of national welfare.

What is worth doing at all is worth doing well. You young men who have learnt this elementary national duty, and are devoting time and money and labour to the cause of national security, should aim

at the highest perfection possible. To be regular, efficient, loyal, helpful, even at the cost of real inconvenience and weariness; to be ready for fresh calls and harder service; to take a pride in every detail of your work,-this is your duty. It is a splendid thing for you to belong to a great regiment, a great movement, a great city, a great country. A man by himself is an insignificant unit; but when he combines with others, and sinks his individuality, then, by a paradox, he becomes great. Better to be the humblest member of a great institution than to be an isolated unit. It is service, loyalty, that brings out the best that is in a man. Therefore I say that one obvious and unquestionable way to serve your country well is to be a patriotic volunteer, skilful, regular, trustworthy, one on whom all your comrades can rely.

And now what next? Is there any other trait in the character of the Jews as remarkable as their patriotism? Yes; there is one which we sometimes fail to notice, because it is so familiar to us. I mean the extraordinary phenomenon of a whole nation that was naturally, so to speak, godly. The whole nation, from top to bottom, was penetrated with the consciousness of God's presence, and with the belief that God verily governed the world, as a king governs a nation. Where else in the ancient world was there such a nation ? It was not that the nation were particularly upright, or holy, or pure; on the contrary, they were perverse, and stained with all sorts of crimes. Even their very national heroes, their Jacobs and Davids and Solomons, were not models. of rectitude and purity. But they did verily believe in God. Nor was this faith limited to the priests, to