150 SELECTED ESS A YS FROM LA Y SERMONS 



ing them into effect, on the general ground that personal 

 and local influences are very subtle, and often unconscious, 

 while the future greatness and efficiency of the noble in- 

 stitution which now commences its work must largely de- 

 pend upon its freedom from them. 



I constantly hear Americans speak of the charm which 

 our old mother country has for them, of the delight with 

 which they wander through the streets of ancient towns, 

 or climb the battlements of mediaeval strongholds, the names 

 of which are indissolubly associated with the great epochs 

 of that noble literature which is our common inheritance; 

 or with the blood-stained steps of that secular progress, by 

 which the descendants of the savage Britons and of the wild 

 pirates of the North Sea have become converted into w^ar- 

 riors of order and champions of peaceful freedom, exhaust- 

 ing what still remains of the old Berserk spirit in subduing 

 nature, and turning the wilderness into a garden. But 

 anticipation has no less charm than retrospect, and to an 

 Englishman landing upon your shores for the first time, 

 travelling for hundreds of miles through strings of great 

 and well-ordered cities, seeing your enormous actual, and 

 almost infinite potential, wealth in all commodities, and in 

 the energy and ability which turn wealth to account, there 

 is something sublime in the vista of the future. Do not 

 suppose that I am pandering to what is commonly under- 

 stood by national pride. I cannot say that I am in the 

 slightest degree impressed by your bigness, or your material 

 resources, as such. Size is not grandeur, and territory does 

 not make a nation. The great issue, about which hangs a 

 true sublimity, and the terror of overhanging fate, is what 

 are you going to do with all these things? What is to be 

 the end to which these are to be the means ? You are making 



