In Memoriam: Queen Victoria

“Tn the solemn hnsh which has fallen upon the land, business, pleasure, party strife are stilled like rivers in frost. The incoming tide of a common sorrow has buried all distinctions of creed or class. We are gathered to-day as members of the Evangelical Free Churches, from no wish for ill-timed separation, but simply because it was impossible that any considerable portion of the public should unite in the official service, and in token of the unity of spirit joining the congregation in the Cathedral and the congregation here, we have delegated two of our number to represent us there.

Never since England was a kingdom has one of its sovereigns been borne to the grave with a nation for his mourners. The stately ceremonial, which is passing through the streets of the Metropolis at this hour, will be unique in history, not so much for the long train of kings, princes, envoys, nor for

* Free Trade Hall, Manchester, Feb. 2, 1901.

the double line of battleships on sea, and of soldiers on land, through which it travels, but because a multitude which no man can number, out of this and every nation, really, though invisibly, join its ranks. There has never been anything like it in the world’s history.

It reminds one of another royal funeral of which we read, when “all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah, and Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations.” The nation, the prophet as representative of the godly, the singing men and women as types of literature and of art, concurred in the lament. And the reason of it all is added, “for his goodness, according to that which was written in the law of the Lord.” For let us not forget that the Queen’s religion was the impulse of her life. Men of all sorts, statesmen, judges, journalists, preachers, have extolled, in these sad days, her many excellences, and her far-reaching influence, but we to-day think rather of the wife, the mother, the good because godly woman.

They who bear her sacred dust to its last resting-place will pass through a portal over which is carved, by her command, an inscription which tells the secret of her life for forty years. It may be Englished thus: “His sorrowing widow, Victoria the Queen, ordered all that is mortal of Prince Albert to be placed in this tomb, Anno Domini 1862. Farewell, beloved. Here at last I shall rest with thee. With thee in Christ I shall rise again.” Love and grief made her think of herself first as a widow; then as a Queen. The widow’s cap was more congenial to that head than the royal crown. Henceforward she was invested with the greater majesty of sorrow, and compassed with a certain remoteness which awed frivolity and rebuked licence, but which never slacked her diligence nor chilled her sympathies. Faithful to one dear memory, she recognised all her duties, and was swift to bear her portion of national and individual joys and sorrows. Her own sorrow took her by the hand, and led her into the presence of Hope the Comforter. Therefore the agony of the parting cry, “Farewell, beloved,” passed into a calm assurance of rest at last; and after that last, of a new first wherein the two loves, the love of the dead husband and of the living Lord, should coalesce, and “with thee in Christ I shall rise again.” Let us be thankful for such a confession of faith and such a disclosure of the secret springs of such a life.

The life that flowed from these deep fountains was worthy of them. Her steadfast 2)erseverance in duty, her swift sympathies, her simplicity of taste, her purity of life, have been upon all men’s li|)s. Therefore she was a conqueror in the noblest realm, and won her people’s hearts. They loved her because she loved and gave herself to them. He that would knit others to himself must, sleej)ing or waking, have one end of the bond fastened round his own heart. And let us not forget that the secret of it all was her personal faith in the Lord of her salvation. Therefore she was faithful to her earlyvow, “I will be good “; and how she fulfilled it, this day’s reverent sorrow of a nation attests. So though we grieve,

Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail,

... nothing but well and fair,

And what may quiet us, in a death so noble!

The fall of so great a cedar makes a gap, even in the forests of Lebanon. And to-day we are beiog taught that —

The glories of our birth and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;

There is no armour against fate,
Death lays his icy hand on kings.

But we are Christians, and to us no darkness is unvisited by gleams of light. She ^’hath outsoared the shadow of our night,” and though no man’s glory descends into the grave after him, every man’s character goes with him:

Their works, and alms, and all their good endeavour Stay not behind, nor in the grave are trod.

The faithful servant, be he prince or pauper, passes to nobler work, to higher authority, to wider service.

Be he prince or pauper, for the law of life is the same for all conditions. We, too, may be steadfast in our small duties. We, too, may educate our hearts to swift sympathy, and numberless, though often unremembered, acts of daily kindness. We, too, may be pure. We, too, may walk in the light of the great hope. We, too, may knit ourselves to, and base our lives upon, Jesus Christ.

As members of Evangelical Free Churches our loyalty and our love have been unstintedly given to the departed Queen. They are now given to the King. For many years he has filled a peculiarly difficult position, demanding much self-suppression, and enforcing much unwelcome inaction. We earnestly pray for him, and trust that he may prolong the tradition of inherited goodness, and that King Edward, like Queen Victoria, may be in our land a power that makes for righteousness.

But we must lift our eyes beyond earthly sovereigns, and let the passing of “that which can be shaken” reveal to us the King and the “Kingdom that cannot be moved.” The lesson of this day for us all is, “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom is no help. His breath goeth forth; he returneth to his earth. Happy is the man that hath the God of Jacob for his help!” Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord, whose King is the Christ — “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever “!