Text 3. A Sermon

Psalm one hundred and twenty seven, verse one: "Except the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain".

Many years ago, when I was vicar of a small parish in the north of England, I remember hearing a sad story of a certain businessman. He was a man well known in that small community for his honesty, his competence, and his capacity for hard work.

Now it happened on one occasion that he was made responsible for the safe keeping of some vitally important papers — plans and documents concerning a new and secret process which was then being perfected by the company for which he worked. He decided to keep the papers in his office safe, and took extreme precautions to ensure that nothing went amiss. He arranged for a watch to be kept at night and informed the local police. And yet, in spite of his care and concern, the office was broken into and the plans were stolen. The poor man was beside himself, and to cut a long story shot, he resigned from his job and spent the rest of his days in a very unhappy retirement.

Now where that unfortunate man went wrong is not that he failed to act the part of watchman with sufficient care — for surely we would all agree that he did everything that could have been expected of him in that direction. No. Where he went wrong was in expecting too much of himself, in not facing up to the fact that the possibility of failure is implicit in all human actions; in not realizing that, in the last resort, none but the Lord can keep the city.

I would like to think that if this man had been possessed of a true and devout communion with God, and had been supported by the self-knowledge that can be derived from such a communion — I would like to think that he would have been better equipped to see his misfortune in a clearer light, and that he would not have succumbed so completely to the blow which fate had dealt him.

All of us gathered here together this morning have suffered, I am sure, our own disasters, some great, some not so great. Disasters, indeed, are something that few of us can hope completely to avoid during the stormy course of life here on earth. And I am equally sure that many of us have been sustained at the times when misfortune has struck by the realization that if only we will give Him our

trust the Lord will be there to keep the city.

Man alone cannot hope to be the defender of his own city. Can we honestly say, any of us, that by our own efforts alone we can be certain of maintaining our defences intact? Try as we will, take whatever precautions we can think of, somewhere, sometime, we are certain to fail. There are so many doubts and uncertainties to assail mortal souls, so many enemies who come by night and conquer by stealth.

No. Only God can fulfil the role of ultimate defender. We must be content to try and keep watch. And even in our modest attempts to do this we must not forget to turn to God. For it is only through a true awareness of His holiness — an awareness of how readily we may draw on the limitless fund of His manifold and great mercies — that we can find the spiritual insight and moral energy to make us effective watchmen.

Задание № 2. Перед вами проповедь на русском языке. Сделайте предпереводческий анализ. Установите тип информации текста. Выполните фоновый анализ. Представьте письменный перевод.

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