ly meant having my soul saved, and going to heaven when I died.
And how did you expect to do that? By believing certain doctrines which
you were told were true; and leading a tolerably respectable life,
without which you would not have been received into society? Was that
all which was needed to go to heaven? And was that all that was meant by
fighting manfully under Christ's banner against sin, the world, and the
devil? Why, Cyrus and his old Persians, 2,400 years ago, were nearer to
the kingdom of God than that. They had a clearer notion of what the
battle of life meant than that, when they said that not only the man who
did a merciful or just deed, but the man who drained a swamp, tilled a
field, made any little corner of the earth somewhat better than he found
it, was fighting against Ahriman the evil spirit of darkness, on the side
of Ormuzd the good god of light; and that as he had taken his part in
Ormuzd's battle, he should share in Ormuzd's triumph.

Oh be at least able to say in that day,--Lord, I am no hero. I have been
careless, cowardly, sometimes all but mutinous. Punishment I have
deserved, I deny it not. But a traitor I have never been; a deserter I
have never been. I have tried to fight on Thy side in Thy battle against
evil. I have tried to do the duty which lay nearest me; and to leave
whatever Thou didst commit to my charge a little better than I found it.
I have not been good: but I have at least tried to be good. I have not
done good, it may be, either: but I have at least tried to do good. Take
the will for the deed, good Lord. Accept the partial self-sacrifice
which Thou didst inspire, for the sake of the one perfect self-sacrifice
which Thou didst fulfil upon the Cross. Pardon my faults, out of Thine
own boundless pity for human weakness. Strike not my unworthy name off
the roll-call of the noble and victorious army, which is the blessed
company of all faithful people; and let me, too, be found written in the
Book of Life: even though I stand the lowest and last upon its list.
Amen.

SERMON XXII. NOBLE COMPANY.

HEBREWS XII. 22, 23.

Ye are come to the city of the living God, and to the spirits of just
men made perfect.

I have quoted only part of the passage of Scripture in which these words
occur. If you want a good employment for All Saints' Day, read the whole
passage, the whole chapter; and no less, the 11th chapter, which comes
before it: so will you und