The Express.
London, England, 1855-03-22 00:00:00

!THE DAY OF HUMILIATION.

ABBEY.-ROUSE OF LORDS.

A special entice, commencing at half-past eleven,
was celebrated In Westminster Abbey, yesterday, and
agreeably to the relegation passed by the House of Lords
an Fridley, woe attended by a numbs' of Peers. The Lord
Chasm Hoe, Earl Granville, Earl Wa'degree., Earl Grey,
Lard Hedge&*and the Bishops of Chichester, Winchester,
St. David's, and St. Aseph, were among those who attended
the envies, having walked across Palace-yard in procession
from the House to the Abbey. There was also a full,
though not crowded, general congregation.
The Bishop of Salisbury, by special retinae,
preached a sermon from the text (taken from the
Gospel of the day), 81. Luke, chapter 18th, part of
the lath verse ; " God be merciful to me, a sinner."
His lordship began by saying that, although we were told
by an apostle whence came wars and fighting' amongst
men, even from the lasts that warred in our members, no-
' vertheiess the judgment that the war is a just and Deem-
er, sae was very unanimous, and, on the whole, correct ;
MI& put this remark on the very front of his discourse
bemuse a different judgment would introduce into the sub-
jests of humiliation oa that day other elements than those
which now belonged to It. One effect of such a judgment
should be to increase, quicken, and confirm our endeavours
te obtain gnomes, and immure the restoration of peace.
Whatever skill and genius, and prudence and forethought,
and manly energy could de to bring the struggle to a ere-
medal issue should be done ; but perhaps his °Mee was not
so much to deal with these secondary causes as to bring our
minds to that point in the chain of causation when we
should cents into the presence of the ordaining will of God,
and to remind us that the most powerful instruments we
could use when in that presence were prayer and fasting,
and resolutions of amendment of life, and alssigivieg.
There could be no question, said his lordship, that God bad
been pleased to entrust to man, in prayer, a most powerful
instrument of attaining a righteous object, whether that
object were to frustrate or alter some evil design of another,
OT to plead for the reversal of some temporary providential
affliction. No wonder, then, that in this hour of our dis-
tress the nation was now engaged in that great function of
prayer, having wisely refused to give heed to those who
cavilled against it. After citing a scriptural examples
of the efficacy of such en ordinance, his lordship proceeded
thus :—But as this meats of grace may be used well or ill
—in the spirit of the publican or the spirit of the Pharisee—
we must take care how we engage in it ; that we present
werselves to God in the same garb and character in which
we have commonly appeared before His all-seeing eye. We
should maims the plague-spots which .mark our present
audition as a nation, and which are, for example, such as
these : the great want of provision of the ordinances of our
holy religion for our increasing population, and the scanty
maintenance given in new endowments for those who minister
God's word and sacraments; the neglect of education, and of
reforming criminals, and of reclaiming Magdalene. ; the im-
perfect condition of our hospitals, as places where not only
the gift of our wealth, but our personal ministrations are
required. Again, the warnings of the word of God against
Intemperate use of " the wine, and of the new ;wine," are
often repeated ; and our sins in that matter have become
very grievous. Again there are no sins in.ce emphatically
denounced by the apostles, then the sins of the tongue, such
se slander, evil speaking, and bearing fact witness ; which
sins are too frequent among us. Again, the sin of the Flux
date was his proud and boastful temper, which is, in a great
degree, also our own. There is another sin, to which David
refers, when he says of himself, " I rejoiced not at the de-
struction of bin that hated me, nor at the stumbling of
mine enemy." I mention it now, In order that if we have
iately fallen into the condemnation of this sin, we may to-
day confess and abandon it. We have also to regret, amidst
the success of ear industrial enterprises, that sin of the
I idolatry of wealth, which is the peculiar danger of such
s condition. One of its consequences is that men are found
indulging themselves with lavish prodigality in all that
pampers the last of the flesh, the last of the eyes, and the
pride of life ; and yet, at the same time, they seem to axe,.
eise a stricter economy that their fathers in everything
which concerns the external circumstances of the church,
and the ministrations of religion; and this, although jus-
tice, economy, and the reform of abuses, are most praiss•
worthy, is a very strange coincidence. I may observe, too,
that, having enjoyed so long the blessings of peace, and
having devised so many means of excluding the troubles et
war from our own shores, we are in danger of forgetting
that If the time shall come when nation shell not lift up the
sword against nation, that will be only by the decree of the
Lord of Hosts. I would also mention one other circumstance

winoh must M dtip mow to Qod ; I mean the division of 1
Christians, who ought to be one fold, under one shepherd.
Snob are a few of the national eine for which we should
bumble °unitive'. But national humiliation, to be any-
thing better than the profession of the Pharisee, must be
based on personal humiliation—on a deep sense oithose sins
which mark oar characters as individuals. And we must
add to those confessioos—to this acknowledgment of sin,

hearty resolutions and vows of amendment—t; do our utmost
to lessen the evil that has happened, and to compass all
those great objects which are yet unattained. We must
resolve to give our poorer brethren a good education, to
reform our criminals, to reclaim the publicans and harlots,
to enlist religious sympathy in the are of the sick poor, to
renounce carnal indulgences, to bridle our tongues, and
mortily our pride and vain glory. With regard to the fiat
object, the education of the people, I admit that in its ad-
justment there are many diliculties, to any one who
considers that the truth of God he the first claim
to his; consideration. Every enlightened friend of
education seeks to find the middle ground between
secular and denominational education. The only 5010...
...

tion of these difficulties will be found by prayerful
meditation in the spirit of love end active sympathy. I
would remind you, in relation to all these duties, that your
good example and good carriage will have the greatest
influence on the national character—l confess, end I
thoroughly believe, have a larger share of the guilt of all
these derelictions than the laity, and that the burden of
put neglect and present duty presses with more fearful
responsibility on the bishops of the church than on an
other men in this kingdom ; but, having owned this, I
would give a caution against harsh and rough judgments
about the church and its ministers, and I would plead in
their behalf that they are but men, of like passions with
yourselves. If this human society fora divine object, which
is called the church, be supposed to require, in its external
relations, any correction, amendment, or reorganisation, let
each changes be carried out with the
oar Zion. Having then announced that the alms to be
given en that occasion would be consecrated to the purpose
of erecting in the Turkish dominions a church of the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, the right reverend prelate concluded
as follows: And now I would hope that besides any direst
blender; which God may grant to as, in answer to oar
prayers and other sacrifices, the moral influence of this day
may be good, in steadying, calming, and giving decision to
the national mind—in helping to keep it clear of wrath and
bitterness, and in fixing it on the one legitimate object, a
right and lasting peace. War may thus be not an unmixed
evil. Indeed, it has already been profitable to us in many
ways; our army mangey have given proofs of the noblest
devotion to their country's cause ; the self denial and gen-
tleness', and patience and aerie of those Cnris-
tiaa
women who have ministered to the wants of the

sick and wounded, have set us at home a noble example,
and I trust that we shall so learn that lesson, that
whenever God, in his mercy, restores to us the blessing of
peace, we shall find that the storm of war has cleared away
many clouds which were darkening our horizon. Let us
hope that those hearts which are being now practised in
expressions of strong yet tender sympathy, will cot, when
the present demand upon them ceases, draw in those sym-
pathies from daily ezercise—but that the poor, the igno-
rant, the publican, and the harlot—the prisoner, the orphan,
and the widnw, and the sick and the feeble, will all experi-
ence the (mita bath of that unselfish obesity which the
perils of war have so fostered and savigoratel, and of this
humiliation of ourselves before God. This confession of our
sins—these resolutions to amend oar ways, have been
prompted by our earnest desires for a successful issue of the
calamities of the present war, and fur lb. restoration of peace.