A Sermon preached at Christ Church, Kensington, on May 1, 1859 / being the day appointed for a general thanksgiving to Almighty God, for the success granted to our arms in suppressing the rebellion and restoring tranquillity in Her Majesty's Indian Dominions.

Transcribed from the 1859 Rivingtons edition by David Price.
PREACHED AT
CHRIST CHURCH, KENSINGTON,
On May 1, 1859,
BEING THE DAY APPOINTED FOR A GENERAL THANKSGIVING TO ALMIGHTY GOD,
FOR THE SUCCESS GRANTED TO OUR ARMS IN SUPPRESSING THE REBELLION AND RESTORING TRANQUILLITY IN HER MAJESTY’S INDIAN DOMINIONS.
BY THE
REV. WILLIAM WRIGHT, M.A. SENIOR CURATE OF ST. MARY ABBOTTS, KENSINGTON.
LONDON: RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE. WINTER, HIGH STREET TERRACE, KENSINGTON. 1859.
2 Samuel viii. 14, 15. “And he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all they of Edom became David’s servants, and the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went. “And David reigned over all Israel: and David executed judgment and justice unto all his people.”
As an aggregate of individuals professing faith in Christ, we, the people of Great Britain, may with truth and reason venture to assert that our Queen and our Legislature are on a footing, as to God’s protecting care, with highly favoured and heaven-honoured David of old. If Almighty God, under his earlier revelation, did actually guard and help in temporal matters a ruling prince of this lower world, who was a man “after his own heart”—as David’s plainly-told history everywhere assures us that He did—none can reasonably say that it is either impossible or improbable that He should vouchsafe to guard and help our presiding Monarch and our law-giving Senate in the administration of public affairs, baptized as they are “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;” educated as they are in the very details of his later and last revelation; and supposed, pledged, and believed as they are to be seeking individually after the mind which is in Christ, and the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit of God. All, indeed, must at once see, and grant as a foregone conclusion from which there is no appeal, that our monarchical and representative government, being essentially and generally Christian —being so in spite of the Judaism, vice, and infidelity which may be discerned in it, and which in no way interfere with our present argument—is, by virtue of its admitted and preponderating Christianity, brought under the immediate guardianship and protection of the Most High.