After all, the surest way to uphold or restore our endangered Church, will be for each of her anxious children, in his own place and station, to resign himself more thoroughly to his God and Saviour in those duties, public and private, which are not immediately affected by the emergencies of the moment: the daily and hourly duties, I mean, of piety, purity, charity, justice. It will be a consolation understood by every thoughtful Churchman, that let his occupation be, apparently, never so remote from such great interests, it is in his power, by doing all as a Christian, to credit and advance the cause he has most at heart; and what is more, to draw down God's blessing upon it.



Rev. John Keble, theologian, teacher and poet, priest of the Church of England, preached the Assize Sermon at St. Mary's Church, Oxford, on 14 July 1833. His sermon on the text of 1 Samuel 12:23, National Apostasy, is reckoned as the start of the Oxford Movement, of which Keble remained a central figure.



Lord, In Thy Name Thy Servants Plead