extend among our countrymen the blessings of the Gospel. Can they mean, then, any thing more than this, that they approve of the principle of Church endowments, and are opposed to any plan for taking from the English Church those which have not already been plundered? If this be their meaning, they are of course right; but it seems a poor thing, that the chief governors of a Christian land should make it a great matter, and a subject of a distinct and solemn and oft-repeated profession, that they disapprove of the principle of sacrilege. It is high time that statesmen of all parties should learn, that this vaunted disavowal does not satisfy the Christian people of England. We want something more; we wish to be not only negatively but positively religious. We are not content to abstain from sacrilege; rather are we resolved to devote to the glory of our God a portion of our public as well as our private revenues. That we should do so is a national duty; to delay it is a national sin; to refuse it would be a national impiety, such as by God's blessing we hope to prevent.
As Christians, then, we demand the public recognition of this great principle—that God is King of kings and Lord of lords; that nations as well as individuals must serve and honour Him, and that our nation must serve and honour Him at this crisis, by raising houses of prayer to the glory of His name, and must fulfil the promise, that
