And shall not the earth witness against us?  Look round, when you go out of church, upon this noble English land.  Why is it not, as many a land 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 choosing it.  What has saved us?  What has kept us from it?  Certainly not our own righteousness, nor our own wisdom, nor our own faith.  After reading the history of England; or after recollecting our own lives—­the less we say of them the better.

What has kept us from ruin so long?  We are all day long forgetting the noble things which God did for our forefathers.  Why does not God in return remember our sins, and the sins of our forefathers?  Why is He not angry with us for ever?  Why, in spite of all our shortcomings and backslidings, are we prospering here this day?