and
far richer in soil and climate is now, a desolate wilderness; the land
lying waste, and few men left in it, and those who are left robbing and
murdering each other, every man's hand against his fellow, till the wild
beasts of the field increase upon them? In that miserable state now is
many a noble land, once the very gardens of the world--Judaea, and almost
all the East, which was once the very garden of the Lord, as thick with
living men as a hive is with bees, and vast sheets both of North Africa,
and of South and of North America. Why is not England thus? Why, but
because the Lord set before our forefathers life and death, blessing and
cursing; and our forefathers chose life, and lived; and it was well with
them in the land which God gave to them, because they chose blessing, and
God blessed them accordingly? In spite of many mistakes and
shortcomings--for they were sinful mortal men, as we are--they chose life
and a blessing; and clave unto the Lord their God, and kept His covenant;
and they left behind, for us their children, these churches, these
cathedrals, for an everlasting sign that the Lord was with us, as He had
been with them, and would be with our children after us.

Ah, my friends, while we look round us over the face of this good land,
and see everywhere the churches pointing up to heaven, each amid towns
and villages which have never seen war or famine for now long centuries,
all thriving and improving year by year, and which never for 800 years
have been trodden by the foot of an invading enemy, one ought to feel, if
one has a thoughtful and God-fearing heart--Verily God has set before us
life and blessing, and prospered us above all nations upon earth; and if
we do not cleave to Him, we shall shew ourselves fools above all nations
upon earth.

And then when one reads the history of England; when one thinks over the
history of any one city, even one country parish; above all, when one
looks into the history of one's own foolish heart: one sees how often,
though God has given us freely life and blessing, we have been on the
point of choosing death and the curse instead; of saying--We will go our
own way and not God's way. The land is ours, not God's; the houses are
our own, not God's; our souls are our own, not God's. We are masters,
and who is master over us? That is the way to choose death, and the
curse, shame and poverty and ruin, my friends; and how often we have been
on the point of c