The true and dutiful children of the Church, the loyal
soldiers of Christ Jesus will next Wednesday hear the call of their Leader’s
trumpet, rousing them up, as on all Ash-Wednesdays, to set about his work, to
fight his battle, in earnest. It will be the old note, but you will not
therefore scorn it, if you are true men and brave soldiers. You know it would
never do for a soldier, when the trumpet or bugle sounds in the morning, to
say, “It is only the old call over again, what I have been used to so very
often; I am not going to disturb myself for that,” and so to stay quietly in
his quarters. No more will it do for you, Christian warriors, to make light of
your Lord’s summons, now that he is calling upon you at the opening of another
Lent; another holy season of penitent self-denial and prayers. He calls you
morning by morning, and morning by morning, you must answer his call.”
John Keble, “Sermon XXI. Preparation for Holy Communion,
Preparation for Death and for Judgment,” Sermons for Septuagesima to
Ash-Wednesday, with Sermons for Confirmation and on the Litany. (1879).
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