Yes:  many a holy soul, many a useful soul, many a saint who is now at God’s right hand, has lived and worked, and been a blessing, himself blest, of whom the world, and even the Church, has never heard, who will never be seen or known again, till the day in which the Lord counteth up His jewels.

Let us rejoice in that thought on this day, above all days in the year.  On this day we give special thanks to God for all His servants departed this life in His faith and fear.  Let us rejoice in the thought that we know not how many they are; only that they are an innumerable company, out of all tongues and nations, whom no man can number.  Let us rejoice that Christ’s grace is richer, and not poorer, than our weak imaginations can conceive, or our narrow systems account for.  Let us rejoice that the goodly company in whose presence we stand, can be limited and defined by no mortal man, or school of men:  but only by Him from whom, with the Father, proceeds for ever the Holy Spirit, the inspirer of all good; and who said of that Spirit—­“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth.  So is every one who is born of the Spirit”—­and who said again, “John came neither eating nor drinking, and ye said, He hath a devil.  The Son of man came eating and drinking, and ye say, Behold a man gluttonous and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.  But I say unto you, Verily wisdom is justified of all her children”—­and who said again—­when John said to Him, “Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and he followeth not us”—­“Forbid him not.  For I say to you, that he that doeth a miracle in My name will not lightly speak evil of Me”—­and who said, lastly—­and most awfully—­that the unpardonable sin, either in this life or the life to come, was to attribute beneficent deeds to a bad origin, because they were performed by one who differed from us in opinion; and to say, “He casteth out devils by Beelzebub, prince of the devils.”

These are words of our Lord, which we are specially bound to keep in our minds, with reverence and godly fear, on All Saints’ Day, lest by arranging our calendar of saints according to our own notions of who ought to be a saint, and who ought not—­that is, who agrees with our notions of perfection, and who does not—­we exclude ourselves, by fastidiousness, from much unquestionably good company; and possibly mix ourselves up with not a little which is, to say the least, questionable.

Men in all ages, Churchmen or others, have fallen into this mistake.  They have been but too ready to limit their calendar of saints; to narrow the thanksgivings which they offer to God on All Saints’ Day.