The Newtown bee., 1894-07-27
Affairs About Town. OUR NATIONS BIRTHDAY.
A SERMON PREACHED AT ST JoHN's(EPIs- CoPAL), CHURCH, SANDY HOOK, JULY l, BY REV o. O. WRIGHT.

Exodus 1s .s5. "And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever"
 It was that fearful night of the Lords Passover when Israel was born nation, Gods chosen people, elected to show forth his moral and spiritual attributes to the whole world, had been schooIed in the wisdom and the bondage of Egypt, four hundred years, and now the time of their divine deliverance had come. It was not only the birthday of nation, but one of the great turning points in the worlds history. The signs and wonders wrought by the hand of Moses at the divine command stand for us as to all the ages that have passed between as testimony that God is ssthe Governor among the nations,' 5 making even s'the wrath of man to praise Him. "And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this servIce. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, what mean ye by this ser vice! That ye shall say, It is the sacri- flee of the Lords passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people . BOWED THE HEAD AND woRsHIPED.''
 And, wherever in the world to-day the faithful sons of Israel are found, and that is among every civilized nation on the earth, that same memorial of the Passover of God is observed even as upon that first fearful night in Egypt. And it may well be said that by means of this perpetual celebration of the birth day of Israel as Nation delivered from bondage, the promise to Abraham has been. most abundantly fulfilled; land ln thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" .~- -- i
 This great divine principle of teaching by memorials runs throughout the records of Divine Revelation and is found illus trated in the history of every people. History has been most aptly defined as ''philosophy teaching by examples E All the great movements in the progress of the world have begun with the birth of some new ideal; and every great new work among men must have it's great leaders and it's memorials to perpetuate and develop it's divine significance and promote it's practical benefits. Every great event has its fitting memorial, and calls for it's proper observance and it's timely celebration. The anniversaries of a nation are the mile stones of its life and progress; and when these are for gotten or neglected the handwriting on the wall will signify decadence.
 Every nation has its call of God to work out some great principle which in the divine economy shall bless the world and help to bring in the universal REIGN OF THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM that divine call the nation shall prosper and fill up the measure of it's high desti- ny among the peoples of the earth. Faithless and incompetent to work out the ideal set before it, another people shall receive its buried talent and take it's place. So nations come and go, and empires rise and fall, but the progress of the kingdom of God flows on forever. For as the great prophet declares, 1.-The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted" Our forefathers in these English colonies were somewhat conditioned as were the children of Israel in Egypt. The first settlers, es- pecially in New England, studied the law of Moses and sought to realize the divine ideal of government; and our :n- stitutions are due more to that fact, per haps, than to the personal influence of any great men as such. That they made some mistakes we are able to see but are we not in danger of making greater mistakes, at this time, through neglect of certain fundamental principles upon which they built for us with such
 jealous cares As another has said. 1.-The first settlers of America came
 here, bringing with them the political discoveries which had been made in
 England; having nothing to cloud their | minds, they soon enjoyed the broad sun shine of political liberty, which belongs
 to man as his birthright. 5n9 .,5 ald THIS GLORIOUS ILLUMINATION
 resulted, finally, in the separation of tht
 colonies from the Mother Country, ant
 the Independence of America. Th'
 success of our government in making |
 people prosperous and happy. ha
 shaken down the French monarchy, ha
 done much to modify the institutions o England and to infuse principles of lib erty into most other monarchies of Eu trope.'' If then our peculiar America
 Institutions mean anything of perma
 nent historic significance, it is that the ! were founded in the true Catholic spiri l of Christianity, and recognize the fac
 so grandly set forth by St Paul on Mar
 Hill, that "God hath made of one bloc z all nations of men, for to dwell on a tthe face of the earth, and hath dete
 mined the times before appointed. an the bounds of their habitations, ths
 they should seek, the Lord. if hapl
 they might feel after him and find hin though he be not far from every one (
 us. For in him we live and move an
 have our being, as certain also of yor ! own poets have said. For we are als
 This offspring" This then is the. centI
 Of political and religious liberty. Tn
 Hand is the divine door of hope to u
 ends of all the earth; for here, ar
 worthy son of man may find . hom ; IHere is She beginning of human histol