The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1884-10-29
A Great King.

A Great King.
The measure of kingly greatness has
been as varied as the thoughts of those
who have been ruled or ruling. The
warrior has been the central form state.
craft has come next craftsmanship has
sometimes come to the front but philan-
thropy has followed through most of the
history of monarchies in the rear. There
are glorious exceptions -outbursts of
sunshine on the dreary pages of history
Among these exceptions we know OF
none so eminent as that which has as vet
hardly commanded passing admiration
that of the most illHstrious, because most
humane, King Humbert of Italy. The
lite and surroundings of royalty are by
no means calculated to cultivate the
graces which are making this humanely
heroic king peerless. Selfshness is al
most inevitable in those born to such
position. They are taught by example
and by those surrounding them in their
palaces and cabinets to look upon men
more in the mass than as individuals to
look with more interest on national
wrongs than individual sorrows,-to feel
that all ills are at least made tolerable in
an equitable and permanent civil estab-
hshment. The Savoy line, in which he
has some fair ancestors after the regula-
ton pattern, has produced no progenitor
from whom such qualities as he has ex-
hibited during the last three months in
Naples, IN the terrible pestilence, could
be inherited
King Humbert is, therefore, the found
er OF new dynasty of brave men work
ing on the side of the lowly and suffer
ing. He is in humanity King Humbert
the First. His deeds look pacre like an
inheritance from the King OF kings, for
whatever motive may have f,5tuated him,
they have been Christlike in their in
fuences and results. He has not had
opportunity to gain laurels fecked with
blood, on the battlefield, but he has
gained the applause of his fellow men.
He has shown himself in this crisis more
than king-a benefactor to those who
have nothing to return but their gratitude
He has shown himself humane, which has
not been a constant quality in the chroni-
cles of the kings. He is a drawer man
than the hero OF an hundred battles, for
while men may be found TO meet the
dangers of the battle, inspired by ambi-
ton and rage, and hope of the world
applause, there are few that have the
courage to exile themselves to the pest
house, or to an infected city, where the
pestilence walketh in darkness and
wasteth at MONDAY where the air is
heavy with the poisons of death amid
scenes that would, in but a momentarv
glance, appall the strongest heart.
This and more he did, and no solicita-
ton OF friends or calculating prudence
could deter him. He grasped the finest
conception of kinghood, which is to take
part in the SORROWS of his people, and to
rule pitifully in the hours of their sore
disaster as well as in their painless pros.
perities. There is a contrast suggested
at once between him and the one who
boasts OF his imprisonment in the Vatican
which suggests the transference of the
papa, or Pope, to him who could 80
nobly combine the title and office of king
OF Italy with that of father of Italy in
the dire extremities of her plague smitten
children. Long live Prince HumDert,
whose victories have been wrung from the
hand Of death, the brightest Jewels of
whose crown have been won in the duties
OF humanity to his subjects in their dis
tress.
The citizens of London built a monu.
ment to perpetuate the memory of the
great plague. Italy ought to build in
Naples, in the plague-smitten districts, a
monument to her king, who taking his
life in his haud believing himself ilnmor-
tai until his work was done and fearing
naught but the stings of his conscience if
he neglected his people in the time OF
their tribulation, gave not only out of
his own purse, but gave himself as a
sacrifice, if God required it, in the inter-
est Of suffering humanity. Italy is rising
among the nations, because she has a
ruler who has gained moral victories and
added these to the lustre Of the crown of
his ancestors. The Presterian
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