The Church would, first of all, have to be constant, as before, in INTERCESSION.  No despiteful usage, no persecution, could warrant her in ceasing to pray, as did her first fathers and patterns, for the State, and all who are in authority.  That duty once well and cordially performed, all other duties, so to speak, are secured.  Candour, respectfulness, guarded language,—all that the apostle meant, in warning men not to “speak evil of dignities,” may then, and then only, be practised, without compromise of truth and fortitude, when the habit is attained of praying as we ought for the very enemies of our precious and holy cause.

The constant sense of God’s presence and consequent certainty of final success, which can be kept up no other way, would also prove an effectual bar against the more silent but hardly less malevolent feeling, of disgust, almost amounting to misanthropy, which is apt to lay hold on sensitive minds, when they see oppression and wrong triumphant on a large scale.  The custom of interceding, even for the wicked, will keep the Psalmist’s reasoning habitually present to their thoughts: “Fret not thyself because of the ungodly, neither be thou envious against the evil doers: for they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and be withered even as the green herb . . .  Leave off from wrath, and let go displeasure: fret not thyself, else shalt thou be moved to do evil.” [22]

Thus not only by supernatural aid, which we have warrant of God’s word for expecting, but even in the way of natural consequence, the first duty of the church and of churchmen, INTERCESSION, sincerely practised, would prepare them for the second;—which, following the words of Samuel as our clue, we may confidently pronounce to be REMONSTRANCE.  “I will teach you the good and the right way.”  Remonstrance, calm, distinct, and persevering, in public and in private, direct and indirect, by word, look, and demeanour, is the unequivocal duty of every Christian, according to his opportunities, when the Church landmarks are being broken down.

Among laymen, a deep responsibility would appear to rest on those particularly, whose profession leads them most directly to consider the boundaries of the various rights and duties, which fill the space of civilized Society.  The immediate machinery of change must always pass through their hands: and they have also very great power in forming and modifying public opinion.  The very solemnity of this day may remind them, even more than others, of the close amity which must ever subsist between equal justice and pure religion; Apostolical religion, more especially, in proportion to her superior truth and exactness.  It is an amity, made still more sacred, if possible, in the case of the Church and Law of England, by historical recollections, associations, and precedents, of the most engaging and ennobling cast.

But I return to the practical admonition afforded her, in critical periods, by Samuel’s example.

After the accomplishment of the change, which he deprecated, his whole behaviour, to Saul especially, is a sort of expansion of the sentiment in the text.  It is all earnest INTERCESSION with God, grave, respectful, affectionate REMONSTRANCE with the misguided man himself.  Saul is boldly rebuked, and that publicly, for his impious liberality in