13
was struck the other day by a passage in a speech delivered this session by one of our first Statesmen in which he laid it down as a principle, that in every department of life reward took the shape, not of relief, but of promotion to harder and more responsible work. I thought that a grand saying, worthy of an English Statesman, and I saw at once its application to ourselves. I believe we have, on the whole, done well in this Chapel: and now we have our promotion: we are called to harder work: it will take more effort to make a hearty congregational Service which will fill a building like that, than has been needed here. But let us make the effort vigorously and cheerfully. I want our Chapel Services to be a model: I want them to live in the memories of our members who go away, and have to take part in the ordering of Services elsewhere: I want them to quicken any visitor who is present at them with the invigorating sense of contact with a living and outspoken Christian life: I want them to lift ourselves: I want them to be worthy of Him to whom they are offered. And if these are to be so, we must all help. It is for this reason that I so greatly prefer to sacrifice the musical attraction of a choir of boys: it is a sacrifice; but we gain infinitely more than we lose in being made to feel that the excellence of our Services depends on ourselves. Therefore let us all in the first place lend our voices. You
