DEAN STANLEY ON ENGLAND'S PHYSICAL ADVANTAGES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 52, 28 February 1873, Page 4

DEAN STANLEY ON ENGLAND'S PHYSICAL ADVANTAGES.

; On Sunday' morning the Dean of 'WeBU minster : preached at the; •^bhe^for '^the first time after a lengthened absence, and [ although , :! the services commenced at the .early hour of ten o'clock and the morning was bitterly cold, theibuilding was crowded. In the course of an able sermon the dean found' occasion to refer totbe great 'natural bulwarks which surrounded the kingdom of the Jews in Palestine, and said. .that the valley of ih'e, JTordan,. ( the,. deepest fissure that exists ou the face of the, earth, w,as so deep as 'to have/ its 'own peculiar tropical vegetaiibn ; ' arid its own 'mysteridus. history. Then, turning to our f *' island: home," he continued, 5 (j Let us^too, think for ourselves, as we read the words' of -.the psalmjstyhow much of our irepose,~:of our wealth; and of our comfortvdepend on the physical ,of ; our- own country 1 , ; to which, after our summer or autumn wanderings, we return; home,, and i<in which our duty and our happiness lie. Think of » the; vast treasures which G-od : has i laid jup in those deep places of our land which ' have been the secret of so much' of, 6'tfr! power; — those mines of coal which" feed .the fires of our hpnaes^our manufactories y and our steamships, with their sails ~and : flame whereby we 'traverse the globe. Think aisb, of that " silver streak " of sea, those .irop-bound coastswbich haye,'giveri ; iisour .isolated jpositipUi our ; | ru^ggejd firm- ! ness, our .impregnable ..independence. Underneath the waters of -the 'narrow! channel, scientific tell us^ there still may be discerned the forests which in former ages united the forests of England with, the forests, of the adjacent continent., What a marvellous providence, hardly less than' the passage^ of the Red Sea,- was the great unknown convulsion of nature which overwhelmed that green valley with the salt -waters of a raging sen, and rent asunder the' chalky cliffs on either side, and left our island like a gallant, ship 'to fight its way alone with "its, own insujar character through the; tumults of the j.world.", : ■ ;-;:,■. :: i