National Apostasy

"National Apostasy" was a sermon preached by John Keble at the University Church of St Mary, Oxford, on 14 July 1833.

[2] The text of the sermon was 1 Samuel 12:23: "As for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way".

[4] This movement, he argued, was always traceable to a "decay or want of faith" that takes hold of those, like the Israelites of the prophet Samuel's time, who see that established institutions and religious principle have not brought worldly success.

Religious indifferentism was an example of this tendency in modern times, embodied not just in "public measures" of toleration but in a general "spirit which leads men to exult in every step of that kind".

[7] This, Keble said, amounted to "profane dislike of God's awful Presence; a general tendency, as a people, to leave Him out of all their thoughts".

[11] He ended his sermon by exhorting his congregation to show courage in the face of "anti-Christian powers", and to dedicate themselves to the cause of the apostolic church.

[15] Kirstie Blair, discussing the history of English sermon-writing at the time, describes the sermon as better known for Newman's characterisation of it than for its own merits.