"Regions Cæsar never knew,
"Thy posterity shall sway;
"Where his eagles never flew,
"None invincible as they."

Such the Bard's prophetic words,
Pregnant with celestial fire,
Bending as he swept the chords
Of his sweet but awful lyre.

She, with all a monarch's pride,
Felt them in her bosom glow;
Rushed to battle, fought, and died;
Dying, hurled them at the foe.

"Ruffians, pitiless as proud,

"Heaven awards the vengeance due;

"Empire is on us bestowed,

"Shame and ruin wait for you!"

COWPER.

"Queis ignotus erat Cæsar, regina, futuro "En! tua posteritas tempore jura dabit; "Victrices ubi nunquam aquilas posuere cohortes "Cæsaris, insignis gens tua sola reget." Talia fatidico prædixit carmine vates, Cœlestique lyræ fervuit igne melos: Corpore deflexo, percussit pollice chordas; Dant percussa gravem fila canora sonum. Audivit regina ferox; fastuque superbum Accendunt animum fervida verba senis: Irruit in pugnam: moriens jaculatur in hostes, Tela velut, sævas, ultima verba, minas: "Infames! quos nulla movet clementia, vobis "Dant scelerum pœnas, munera justa, dei: "Nobis imperium conceditur; alta ruina "Vos, pudor, exitium, gens scelerata, manet."

Lawford,
April, 1898.

E. K. G.

VOL. XX.

RR

THE COMMEMORATION SERMON

BY

THE REV CHARLES ELSEE,

Master at Rugby School.

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God: and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. EPHESIANS ii. 19-22.

10-DAY'S celebration of the foundation and growth and work of this College calls before our mind the parallel between the foundation and growth of the Christian Church itself, and that of institutions and societies such as this, which have sprung up within it with to some extent the same objects and based on some of the same principles. In both cases the ideal has been seriously modified in the actual result by human frailties and failures, yet the ideal was the aim in the foundation of each, and should be still the aim in carrying out its intended object.

Glowing and inspiring are the pictures drawn for us of the ideal early Christian Church-a society united together, as St John describes it, in fellowship even with the Father and the Son; or knit together as St Paul writes in one passage as a body of which Christ is the Head, its several parts and members working together in due measure, and so making increase of the whole to the building of itself up in love; or here as a holy temple built up of living stones

fitly framed together, each stone fashioned according to its own appointed place and supported by those below, and in its turn determining in some measure the form of those above and contributing to their support. And all for one purpose-to be a habitation of God through the Spirit-to be a temple in which He might manifest Himself; in which His true worshippers, the true seekers after Him, might be ever attaining to truer ideas of Him, to increasing knowledge of Him, to clearer recognition of what is His will and what are the methods of His working; to throw off one by one the trammels of ignorance, to take larger views of His providence and His purposes concerning men; and so contemplating Him and studying Him as He has revealed Himself in the history of the human past, in his works of nature, and in the life and character of His Son, to be ever reaching towards Him, and to be ever growing upwards. towards Him in very slow and imperfect, it may be, but still for individual members increasing, likeness. With what glory might the apostle hope would such a temple be filled! How would the glory of such a latter house exceed that of any that had gone before it!

And from the temple would radiate out abroad some of the glory which centred in it; from it would go forth into the world men with varied talents, with varying capacities and varying powers, to carry with them and spread abroad among others some of that knowledge which had been there vouchsafed to them, to be not only the declarers of God's truth, but to be themselves. the evidence of it; to show in their own life and practice the meaning and working of His will.

Inspired by the same Spirit, some would go out as Apostles to new lands and found new churches, some would go to be resident in these as patient teachers and instructors-builders up on these extended foundations. Some would be fitted not so much for specially religious or doctrinal teaching as for imparting

other benefits, leading the degraded up into better habits of life, spreading civilising influences, promoting civilising institutions; by knowledge and skill benefitting the bodies of men, and remedying the ills to which men had become heirs; following Christ their Master rather in the temporal blessings he bestowed than in the spiritual, but still following him. And some would go out specially fitted perhaps to be prominent in none of these ways, yet by their quiet influence and example, by their humble, trustful walk with God, carrying into dark places the light of a good life and good works which would promote his glory, and be effectual in making known His will and in leading men into a life in accordance with it.

And all these, separated indeed externally from the centre from which they went forth, would be still united to it in spirit; members still of the same body, doing still the same work with the same object, new perhaps in point of form but of the same old and sure substance, bound to it by ties of sympathy and affection, rejoicing on the one hand in its well-being and prosperity and on the other animated and encouraged by the sense of a recognition there of their own work and success.

Now, observe that all this oneness of spirit, this activity of work, this extension of scope, is due to first training, to the instruction of each by older members, to the influences of association with them, to the spirit imbibed from them, to the inspiring example of the earnest, the contagiously communicated power of the strong, the encouragement of the successful. And these, as years went on after the foundation of the Church, would not all grow less. First love might sometimes grow cooler, first energy and enthusiasm might grow less keen, but the roll of earnest, strong, and successful members would grow longer, and their influence increase; the variety which marked their characters and work would bring enlargement of view and object; and accumulating experience would give valuable guidance.