To thank God for all these we are met together here; and to pray to
God likewise that he would send his Spirit into the hearts of seamen,
and of those who deal with seamen; and specially into the hearts of
the Royal the Master and the Worshipful the Elder Brethren of this
Ancient and Honourable House; that they may be true, and loyal, and
obedient to that divine name in which they are met together here this
day--the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the ever-blessed
Trinity, the giver of all good gifts, in whom we live, and move, and
have our being; always keeping God's commandments and looking for
God's guidance, and setting to those beneath them an example of sound
reason, virtue, and religion; that so there may never be wanting to
this land a race of seamen who shall trust in God to teach them all
they need to know, and to dispose of their bodies and souls as
seemeth best to his most holy will; who, fearing God, shall fear
nought else, but shall defy the dangers of the seas, and all the
brute forces of climates and of storms; who shall set in foreign
lands an example of justice and mercy, of true civilization and true
religion; and so shall still maintain the marine of Great Britain, as
it has been for now three hundred years, a safeguard and a glory to
these islands, and a blessing to the coasts of all the world.
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