And whenever, in the prayer for the Church militant, we commemorate
the faithful dead, and thank God for all his servants departed this
life in his faith and fear, we should remember with honest pride that
we are thanking God for our own mothers and fathers, and for those
that went before them; ay, for every honest God-fearing man and
woman, high or low, who ever did their duty by God and their
neighbours, and left, when they died, a spot of this land somewhat
better than they found it.

And for God; the Father of all fathers; our Father in heaven--Oh, my
friends, God grant that it may never be said to any of us, Behold the
words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, which he commanded his children,
are performed: but ye have not hearkened unto me. I have sent also
unto you, saith God, not merely my servants the prophets, but my
only-begotten, Jesus Christ your Lord, saying, 'Return you now every
man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other
gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given
to you and to your fathers. But ye have not inclined your ear, nor
hearkened unto me.'

God grant that that may never be said to any of us. And yet it is
impossible to deny--impossible to shut our eyes to the plain fact--
that Englishmen now-a-days are more and more forgetting that there
are any commandments of God whatsoever; any everlasting laws laid
down by their Heavenly Father, which, if they break, will avenge
themselves by our utter ruin. We do not go after other gods, it is
true, in the sense of worshipping idols. But there is another god,
which we go after more and more; and that is money; gain; our
interest (as we call it):- not knowing that the only true interest of