A SERMON. "GIVE UNTO THE inaugural occasion of this day's solemnity, and almost second dedication of this holy temple to the service of God and of the Christian religion,-to the uses of that pure and reformed part of Christianity which forms the basis and the superstructure of our National Church,-this inaugural solemnity, at which it is the privilege, of all now present to assist, and take their part in these first fruits of holy worship, and first offering of Christian prayer, on the auspicious resumption of our accustomed services in this renovated and newly decorated sanctuary of the saints,* -the circumstances, I say, of this solemn occasion recall to our recollection many parallel occasions in the history of our National Church, and of the Universal Holy Catholic Church, of which we form a part. They remind us also of parallel dedications in the history of God's earlier dispensations to His chosen people, one of which is cited in the passage * See Note 1. wherein our text invites them to "Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!" We read in 1st Chronicles, chapters xv., xvi., that David made him houses in the city of David, and prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent; and David gathered all Israel together to Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord unto his place, which he had prepared for it, and offered bullocks and rams; and that all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, making a noise with psalteries and harps; and they offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before God, and said (chap. xvi. 35), “Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to Thy holy name, and glory in Thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord." To worship the Lord in the beauty of holinessto stand in awe of Him who is the omnipotent and omnipresent Creator and Preserver of the universe— is indeed the duty, and should be the practice of every son of man that rejoices in the name of Christian, and that has by baptism been admitted to the privileges of sons of God, and joint heirs with Christ. The love of God, which is implied by acts of holy worship, and the fear of God, resulting from such habitual worship, and founded on filial love, and on religious awe, and a dread of offending Him, are feelings in unison with those of the inspired writer of the words quoted in my text, and well accord with the occasion which this day assembles us together, on the completion of a work of piety, that will, we trust, endure to distant generations as a monument of the zeal in God's service, and the devotion and piety and taste of the age in which we live-an age, indeed, remarkable beyond all that have gone before it for rapid advancement in civilisation, and for improvement in arts and sciences, that multiply the comforts and exalt the worldly condition of the human race; and not less remarkable, in a religious point of view, for a general return of public opinion and individual practice to a serious and proper sense of religious duty and religious obligations, from a more lax condition of theory and conduct which prevailed in the century preceding the present, and in which many of us have lived to witness most important improvements, and a blessed change. We have witnessed the daily and annually advancing civil and religious prosperity of our common fatherland, safely conducted through struggles which have torn and lacerated other kingdoms; and still by God's blessing maintaining us in a state of high religious, and moral, and political exaltation, which we may venture to affirm is without example in the past or present history of nations. Truly, the lot has fallen to us in a fair ground. Yea, we have a goodly heritage. We have an heri tage, civil and religious, such as at no preceding period of the history of the world has been enjoyed by any, even of the most highly favoured nations, in the most distinguished times, that have left their records for our instruction and admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Born in these late periods of the world's history, let us then pause a little moment, to consider our actual position. Where are we ?-and what are we ? What is our cosmical position in the universe of God's creation? At what point are we at this moment, becalmed, or sailing with fair winds, or drifted by hurricanes on the ocean of eternity? What and where are we, my brethren, as a nation and as individuals? At what turning point stand we in the history of our little day of life? What are we, and what is all our world in the sight of Him who made the universe, to whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one daywho and what are you, that at this sacred hour, for the first and last time of your mortal life, are met within these walls, as a miscellaneous congregation, to devote a little moment to the praise and service of the God that made us, and placed us for a while in this world, and will shortly remove us to another and more enduring state of being? What are we, the actors of an hour upon the transitory stage of mortal life?-what are we that now stand before the altars which kings in by-gone ages have dedicated to the Majesty of Heaven-we, short-lived denizens of earth and candidates for Immortality? What are we? What have we done beyond the millions of less highly favoured sons of Adam, in less enlightened regions of the globe, to deserve the blessings with which this and every day of our life is crowned? We are all on our journey of life towards another and a better world. We know not what or where we shall be in any future hour of our existence. Let me remind you where we are, for the next brief fragment of the passing hour. You are now, for the first time, sitting as a congregation in the transepts of this Abbey, amidst the monuments and over the graves and mortal remains of a glorious band-of the most distinguished worthies that have adorned our country-amongst the monuments of kings, and queens, and poets, and historians, and philosophers, and divines, and statesmen, and warriors; before the monuments of our Chaucer, our Spenser, our Shakespeare, our Milton, our Camden, our Newton, our Busby, and our Barrow. In the words of one of the brightest ornaments of our nation and of human nature one whose bones are here laid in a royal sepulchre,* and whose monument stands there before me+-in the words of that great spectator and literary reformer, and grand exemplar of taste and purity, who fixed the standard of our language, and refined the literature of our The body of Addison was placed in the Jerusalem Chamber, and thence carried in state to a grave in the north side aisle of Henry the Seventh's Chapel, near the tomb of Queen Elizabeth. + In Poets' Corner; a statue by Sir R. Westmacott. |