charge. The spirit of it exists in the human breast; and every nation is ready to avail itself of the disasters of other nations, to its own advantage. There may, however, be a spiritual counterpart to this sin, in rejoicing over the calamities of other Christian nations; if we be forgetful of the truth that all the Baptized have a common mother-the Jerusalem which is above.

Pride, the second sin that was charged against Tyre, is one of the special sins of England. It is no justification for her to say that every nation (whether Spain, Germany, Italy, Hungary, or Rome) has its peculiar pride, according to its character or surroundings. Nor is pride found only in mighty empires, for it is a marked characteristic of islanders! It may cause a smile to hear of the pride which exists among the people of Iceland; and among those of the microscopic Balearic Islands; who are proud of their birth and lineage, of their exclusiveness and antiquity; but so it is, and it strikes the citizens of a mighty nation as somewhat ludicrous. But human nature remains the same, generation after generation; and pride, be it manifested on a small or on a large scale, whether in an individual or in a nation, when it obtrudes itself in an insolent manner, lays itself open to reproof; as in the case of Tyre. God, through His Prophets, rebukes not only individuals, but nations for their pride; as for example, Babylon, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Jerusalem, Judah, Ephraim, the Philistines, Assyria, Sodom: and in every case, when so rebuked, they are threatened with judgments; in order that they may learn to humble themselves "under the mighty hand of God” (1 Pet. v. 6).

Has England sinned after the same example as Tyre? Has she provoked the Lord by her egotism, by her glorying in her attainments, her capabilities, her security, her prosperity, her commerce, her wealth, her dominion, her colonies, and even in her religiousness? Has she been guilty of this spiritual sin, so as to make her faithful children tremble for her future? The fact of her having withstood the shocks under which other Powers have tottered or sunk, becomes a source of

danger. God pardoned her vainglorying after the French Revolution, but will He pardon her again now? "Moreover, is not Britain, par excellence, the land of pride, both national and personal; fondly deeming herself superior to all, because elevated higher; now an offence, and now a laughing-stock to Europe, through her insular sauciness; cursed by those whom she helps ; spurned by those whom she leads? . . . And are we as exempt from the principles of Antichrist, as we have been hitherto exempt from his judgment? While Germans set themselves as God in daring philosophical speculation, and Frenchmen in reckless political change, do not we set ourselves as gods in the use of the creature for the service of man? Are there not heard amongst us the boastings of Antichrist, in our form of utterance, as plainly as with them in theirs? . . . These are questions worth answering."

I

It is certain that we are noted in every land for our tenacity of English manners and customs, and for exulting in everything that is British. This is not wrong in itself; but when the quiet egotism of the English (which though not always on the surface, lurks unseen) manifests itself in insular depreciation of foreigners, and assumes that the world exists for the special benefit of Britain, whose army and navy must necessarily be able to repel any hostile invader, then patriotism deteriorates into pride and boastfulness. Although it is an undoubted truth, that our constitution is acknowledged to be the most perfect among the nations; that our institutions are unrivalled; and that the stability of our throne, our liberties and laws, are the admiration of foreign nations : nevertheless, our spirit of boasting of these good gifts of God-instead of humbly thanking Him for themsavours of the spirit of Tyre; which was rebuked for trusting in her wisdom, beauty, position, and commerce; and who was consequently warned that "the LORD of hosts (had) purposed to stain the pride of all glory" (Isa. xxiii. 9).

The Door of Hope for Britain, 1853, pp. 27, 28.

Patriotism, or love and admiration for one's country, is not a synonym for an arrogant boastfulness in everything that is purely national. Patriotism is a feeling that should sway the heart of every citizen, loyal to king and country; and this feeling was consecrated by the example of our Lord in His grief over Jerusalem, and by that of St. Paul.

"Each man should be a patriot. Christianity sanctifies all natural distinctions, be they personal, domestic, or national; yet it obliterates none. It prevents them from being the subjects of boasting, or the occasions of strife; yet it maintains their integrity. The ancients fought pro aris et focis. . . . King and country may be the idols of the narrow-minded. But to have neither is only the attainment of the infidel. That fraternity which abates all national quarrels is of Christ. But that which merges all national distinctions is of Antichrist. . . . It is, therefore, no mark of littleness, when Britons stand by Britain. It is our duty so to do. And we are not sinning against the rest of Christendom in preserving her integrity, provided the integrity of other nations be not sacrificed to hers. . .

"God has made Britain great; not her constitution, nor her fleets and armies, nor her enterprise, nor her resources. These are the mere scaffolding. They are neither the building nor the builder. The condition of her greatness is that she fulfils the mission for which He made her great. Otherwise she must fall-tried, and found wanting. Wherein she has failed, the first conditions of her recovery are, knowledge of her errors ; the honest, humble, and open confession of them; and the reform of her ways. Till these conditions are complied with, all expedients are in vain."

It is remarkable that the chief sins which are charged against Tyre, are not such as men brand as crimes-except violence and profanation of her sanctuaries—such as disgraced Sodom and Gomorrah, but they are the spiritual sins of pride, self-exaltation, and covetousness.

The Door of Hope for Britain, 1853, p. 1-3.

Men form their own code of sins and gauge them according to their own estimates, and not according to the perfect spiritual standard of the law of God. But God searches the reins and the hearts, and that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke xvi. 15). The sins of the Christian dispensation are worse than those of any previous dispensation, because they are more spiritual, and are committed against greater privileges, and against more knowledge and grace; hence, the same spiritual sins when seen in Britain, must be morally more grievous than when seen in Tyre. As the Patriarchal and Jewish dispensations each ended in apostasy from their special privileges and standing; so St. Paul plainly states that this will also be the case with the Christian dispensation; but this last apostasy will be of a more spiritual and malignant character, for it will include, in an aggravated form, the sins of the previous dispensations. "The Christian apostasy, that which now ripens apace among us, agrees with the Jewish in this, that it shall be perfected ere men dream of their danger. But in this it differs, that while recovery from the Jewish is possible, recovery from the Christian is impossible; because the latter is a fall from the highest elevation of which man is capable."

I

Our Lord has warned us to take heed lest pleasure, riches, covetousness, "and the lust of other things entering in choke the word of the kingdom" (Mark iv. 19; Luke viii. 14); for the ease, self-indulgence, and luxury, begotten of these things, are not favourable to self-denial and to Christ-like self-control; since they stifle that spirit of watchfulness for the return of the Lord, which His redeemed should maintain, and to which such a great reward is promised. The history of nations shows that the riches and luxury of commercial and prosperous cities, have resulted in forgetfulness of God, in extravagance and profligacy, and in lawlessness and violence; which sins have brought down the

The Door of Hope for Britain, p. 6,

judgments of God; and have entailed the eventual ruin of the transgressors.

"The sins of Britain have not been small. And the amount of her privileges and blessings has greatly aggravated them.

At the time of the first French Revolution Britain was unquestionably the land where apostolic institutions, elsewhere either retained to be abused or purged almost into evanescence, were found to the greatest extent at once comparatively intact and comparatively purewhere the pulse of manly freedom beat most highly in the veins of men who bowed to the majesty of the law -where the liberty of the subject was a formula realized in both its factors-where religion had the largest place and the firmest root in the family, the school, the market, the tribunal, the senate, and the court; in fine, where the habits and institutions of the people still pre-eminently gave that honour to God which He could requite with honour. . . . But how stands it now?" I We repeat: How stands it now?

For many years, since the establishment of Board Schools, increasing efforts have been made to minimize, if not to drive away, all religious instruction from the schools; because all the sectarian factions prefer that the young should receive only secular education at the hands of the State, without any definite religious teaching unless they are allowed to impress their own shibboleth upon their children. In other cases, parents relegate their duty of training their children to paid teachers, who are left to impart their own ideas on religion: for if, as occasionally happens, the parents are absorbed in social engagements, or in the vortex of worldly amusements, they have neither time nor inclination to spare for the nurture and admonition of their children in the fear of the Lord. Is not the Board School system, is not the neglect of parents, preparing the way for the coming apostasy, under Antichrist, of a generation drifting apart from God? One form in

The Door of Hope for Britain, 1853, pp. 10, II.