How then shall we sing the Lord’s song? What shall we sing? What contribution of moral and spiritual worth can we offer beneath the blue skies of this great country?

Daniel kept his windows open towards Jerusalem.

The Mohammedan kneels towards Mecca.

We have eyes that often strain across 6000 miles of sea to "the lone shieling of the misty island". And there are still some old sanctities there for which I would humbly plead.

1. Here is one of them: "Honour thy father and thy mother."

It is not likely that a man who forgets his father and mother will ever do much, to honour his father’s God.

Cast your memory back and you will recall men (perchance your father was of them) — thrifty men who sacrified their all that you might have what none could steal from you ever — a good education — men who could die but who could not lie — men in whose presence the foul word was an impossibility and the mean intention an outrage. And women (perchance your mother was amongst them) — women who toiled and moiled for you — read stories to you — prayed for you — pinched themselves for you ,— nursed you back from the edge of the abyss when the torch was flickering. Is there one soul here, or listening in to this Service, who has been forgetting the old home or dishonouring its teaching? Let today’s setting sun see the golden chain mended — that letter written, that debasing habit faced and fought — that unworthy companionship ended.

II. Here in another old sanctity: Keep in touch with your Church, whichever and wherever it be.

How often have we seen a young man from home arrive in this teeming city, and begin by being present at some Service every Sunday — so making public acknowledgment of Faith in Him to Whom we owe all we have and all we are. Should a Great Creator’s creatures ever have it in their hearts to do less? And then we began to miss him. And that point, so often, coincided with an easy descent to where only dead men lie. Oh! the tragedies and wrecks we all know about, if we don’t speak about, whose end has sometimes been six feet of earth’s merciful oblivion.

III. Here is another sanctity — lore of country, Patriotism. That will never imply hatred of another country, and it will always be clean and also unselfish. Clean! for we can well guess what Dr. Johnson meant when he defined Patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel. Yes — clean; may it never be used as a cloak to cover something less and something lower.

And unselfish. A sergeant in a Highland Regiment returned once to his battalion in the Line after having been twice wounded. He was certain that he was to be "for it" the third time. "But I don’t mind," he said, "it’s going to be a better world for the kiddies afterwards."

His sacrificial unselfishness had something of the Christ and Calvary spirit.

And didn’t we see, once, raw recruits from the moors and glens, — men who had never seen a cannon in their lives, — didn’t we see them facing mud and blood for King and Country and for little earthly reward — doing something for which we haven’t even a name in our language? The French call it esprit de corps. We, when we call it anything, say it is The Old Flag. Are we ever to let that spirit evaporate, far though we be from home?

IV. And here is yet one last Sanctity. It is the answer to the first question in a wonderful little book called the Shorter Catechism, "What is man’s chief end?" — "Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever". What a splendid twin British Exhibition is possible for us at this time —spiritual as well as material; character as well as commerce.

How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? The comprehensive answer is there: "Man’s chief end is to glorify God".

The words may take you back to a mother’s knee. Whether or no, they take you ultimately to a green hill far away and long ago where Somebody hung upon a Cross for love of the souls of men.