Sermons at Rugby | Page 2

hand, if this feeling is weak in
any school, or among the former members of it, or if it assumes
debased forms, as sometimes happens, we see there a sure sign of
degeneration. He who, having grown up in any society like ours, is
possessed by no such love for it, and stirred by no enthusiasm for its
good name, and no desire to do it good, and to see good growing in
every part of it, such an one has somehow missed the chief blessing
that his membership of his school should have brought to him. He may
have been unfortunate, or he may have proved unworthy. The
atmosphere of his school life, and the associations amidst which he
grew up, may have been such that the best thing he can do is to shake
himself clear of them and forget them. To such an one his school time
has been a grave and lifelong misfortune; and it is the condemnation of
any society if there are many such cases in it.
It is, however, exceptional in English life for men who have grown up
in a great school to be stirred by no glow of patriotic feeling for it.
Whatever their own experience of it may have been, they are not
altogether blind to the things that constitute its greatness, and they love
to hear it well spoken of.
But the quality of their patriotism will depend very much on the quality
of their own life; so that the task we have always before us is to be
infusing into our community such a spirit and purpose, as shall infect
each soul amongst us with those higher aims, and tastes, and motives,
with that hatred of things mean or impure, and that love of things that
are manly, honest, and of good report, which distinguish all nobler
characters from the baser, and which are produced and fostered, and
made to work strongly in every society that has any claim to good
influence.
Seeing, then, that a man's patriotism is to a great extent the expression
of his personal life, how instructive is this picture of the patriot which
the 122nd Psalm sets before us. We see thus first of all how he feels the

unity of his people--their one pervading life, and himself a part of it,
though possibly far away--"Jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity in
itself: thither the tribes go up." Those were times when Israel suffered
from division of tribe against tribe, times when the pulse of common
life hardly beat at all, times of isolation or of jealousy; but the true
patriot in Israel, as everywhere, was always possessed by the intense
feeling of the oneness of his people under one Lord; and whenever this
feeling fails, we look in vain for the higher forms of common life.
But we note, too, this Psalmist's passionate personal devotion to the
object of his patriotic love--"They shall prosper that love thee"--"For
my brethren and companions' sakes I will wish thee prosperity." Who
can read unmoved these noble and generous outpourings?
We see, moreover, how his feeling expresses itself, as true love always
does express itself in the desire to do good to its object, and, above all,
how it breathes the spirit of moral and religious earnestness. "Yea,
because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek to do thee good."
If ever you desire to test the sincerity and the worth of any love you
bear to person, place, institution, or society, you have only to turn to
this Psalm, and see if these words fit your thoughts, desires, and
endeavours--"They shall prosper that love thee--For my brethren and
companions' sakes I will wish thee prosperity--Yea, because of the
house of the Lord our God I will seek to do thee good." Here are the
notes of true patriotic feeling--personal love, public spirit, sanctified by
moral and religious purpose, desire to do good. These are the qualities
which are the salt of all societies, and it is by virtue of these that they
win their good name, if they do win it.
In the history of our own school we can point to abundant illustrations
of this truth. I will mention one only, familiar to those who know our
history. "I verily believe," wrote a School-house boy to his friend
fifty-three years ago--"I verily believe my whole being is soaked
through with wishing and hoping and striving to do the school good, or,
rather, to hinder it from falling in this critical time, so that all my cares,
and affections, and conversation, thought, words, and deeds, look to
that involuntarily."

Such was one of your predecessors as he sat here Sunday by Sunday, a
boy like any of you.
He