The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-04-12 00:00:00

PULPIT REFERENCES.

There was an immense congregation at West-
minster Abbey on Saturday afternoon at three o'clock,
to which hundreds were unable to obtain admission.
The service commenced with Chopin's Funeral March,
a great favourite with the deceased Prince, and con-
sisted of the opening sentences of the burial office,
one of the burial psalms (the 39th), the lesson, read
by Archdeacon Farrar; two hymns, "When our heads
are bowed with woe," and "When gathering clouds
around I view," and an address of Canon Rowsell, who
said that in that national temple, endeared by
the monuments of those who rest for ever in
the near presence of God, waiting for the
perfecting of all things, they sought in
earnest prayer that the peace of God might be
given to those who mourned their nearest and
dearest. They felt the deepest sympathy for their
beloved and revered Queen, and for the widow
but so lately a bride. One mourned a dutiful and
loving son, and the other a tender and affectionate
husband; and their prayers and earnest inter-
cessions would, he was convinced, go up to Him
who ever liveth behind the veil that he would support
and succour the mourners in their deep sorrow and
sore trial. Leopold was gone. We knew him by that
familiar name, for the home of our beloved Queen
was that of all her subjects, her children being en-
deared to the whole nation. The preacher pointed
out how a loving and righteous God was
the sole source of real comfort and lasting
peace, the inner cry of the human heart, even
when unexpresseu, being heard by our heavenly
Father. Having shown how Christ inspired the
prayers to which He subsequently responded, he said
that to the most passionate longing and yearning
desire of souls in their greatest travail springs of
water from above came with healing power to assuage
our most poignant grief, whether in the lonely
splendour of a palace or in the humblest homestead.
He concluded by imploring the Divine blessing on the
whole family of this nation, and the pouring down of
the precious balm and ointment from above to help
the mother and wife in their sore distress. The words
heard at the graveside at Windsor that day would, he
said, re-echo throughout the Empire, and they all felt
that when the windows were uncurtained from their
sacred darkness after such a bereavement as had
befallen the Royal House, though their loved ones
could not return to them, they might follow where
they had gone before.
At St. Paul's Cathedral on Saturday afternoon the
cathedral was completely filled at evensong, when the
Dead March in " S?.ul" was played before the
anthem. In the evening the celebrated band of
change ringers of the cathedral members of the
Ancient Society of College Youths rang, with the bells
deeply muffled, a funeral peal.
At St. Paul's Cathedral on Sunday afternoon there
was an overwhelming congregation, many people
coming an hour and a half before the service, and
hundreds standing the whole time. Canon Liddon
preached from Ist Corinthians iii., 13, "Was Paul
crucified for you ?" After a few introductory sen-
tences he said that at this time the shadow of a great
trouble rests on the throne of this empire. A life,
still young with energy, capacity, and disposition,
which in any position would give great promise of use-
fulness and success; but which had opportunities which
fall to the lot of very few men—such a life has been
cut short; and a widow with an orphan child, and
a mother mourning her youngest son, are the central
figures which meet the profoundly sympathetic gaze
of anxious interest in a manner which provokes the
wonder of foreigners. It was somewhat asked why
when hundreds and thousands in this metropolis are
suffering in a similar way there should be a morbid
and lavish sympathy with the sorrows of Royalty.
Certainly trouble is no monopoly of the great. The
human heart is just as tender and exacting in the
poorest hovels of working men as well as in the
palaces of Kings. The affectionate and genuine sym-
pathy, however, which we bring to the foot of the
throne at such times as these was, the preacher said,
perhaps unconsciously, caused by the isolation of the
sufferer, which is the cruel price which has to be paid
for earthly greatness. Canon Liddon dwelt on the
absence of reciprocity of feeling between a Sovereign
and others, which was rarely supplied by courtly
sympathy, and he likened the isolation to such a
position to the loftiest peak in a chain of mountains,
which was exposed to blasts which no rivals could
intercept or rob of their pitiless severity.

Among other marks of respect for the late Duke of
Albany paid in London on the occasion of the funeral
the detachment of Grenadier Guards which mounted
the "Queen's Guard" and the other public duties in
London, marched from Wellington Barracks to the
Guard House at St. James's Palace without music.
The blinds of Buckingham Palace were drawn,
as were also the blinds of the various West-end
Clubs. The War Office was closed, and flags were at
half mast on all the public, as well as on many
private 'buildings. Mourning boards were placed in
the windows of all the shops in Buckingham Palace-
road and of the principal metropolitan thoroughfares,
and minute guns were fired by a detach:l:lent of the
Royal Horse Artillery on the Horse Guards Parade,
while the funeral was taking place. Many theatres
were closed during the afternoon and evening, and no
%vOlunteer iptrades took place.