The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-06-25
GOD SAVE TIE QUEEN.
vICTORIA'S JUBILEE IS THE THEME
OF DIR. TALMAGErs DISCOURSE.

Ok DIX. TALMAOES
The Eloquent Preacher Pays . Fine Tdb.
ute to England's Beloved Ruler and En-
forces the Lesson Of Her Life Great.
est Coronation.
This is DR.. Taimage's third annual
visits TO the C~hautauqua at Beatrice,
one of the greatest throngs ever as
sembled on this continent. He lectured
yesterday; he preached today. Text,
Esther V. 3, VIVA with thou. Queen
Esther"
This question. which was asked of a
queer thousands of years ago, all civil
LIED nations are his day asking of
Queen Victoria. What wilt thou havoc Of
honor, Of reward or reverence or SER
vice, of national or international
acclamaticn: What wilt thou. the
queen OF the nineteenth century p" The
seven miles of procession through the
streets of london day after tomorrow
will be a small part of the c~ongratula-
tory procession whose multitudinous
tramp Will e~ncircle the earth. The eel
1 I'D SOuIiu III
from Westminster abbey and St.Paul's
cathedral in London will be less than
the vibration of n harp string as
compared with the doxologies which
this hour roll up from all nations in
praise to God for the beautiful life and
the glorious reign of this Oldest queen
amid many centuries. From ) O'Clock
of the morning of 1897, when arch
bishop Of Canterbury addressed the
embarrassed and weeping and almost
affrighted girl of IS years with the
startling words, your majesty" until
this sixtieth anniversary of her en-
thronement, the prayer of all good peo-
pie on all sides of the seas, whether
that prayer be offered by the 800, 900, 900
Of her subjects or the larger number Of
millions who are not her subjects.
whether that prayer be sOlemnized in
church or rolled from great orchestras
or poured forth by military bands from
forts and battlements and in front of
triumphant armies all around the
world, has been and is now, God save
the queen"
: Amid the innumerable columns that
have been printed in eulogy of this
queen at the approaching anniversary
columns which, put together, would
be literally miles lOng-it seems to me
that the chief cause of cO~ngratulation
to her and Of praise of God has not
yet been properly emphasized, and in
many cases the chief key note has not
been struck at all. We have been told
over and over again what has occurred
in the Victorian era. The mightiest
thing she has done has been almost
ignored, while she has been honored by
having her name attached to individu-
ais and events for whom and for which
she had no responsibility. We have
put before us the. names of potent and
grandly useful men and women who
have lived during her reign, but l do
not suppOs that she at all helped
Thomas Carlyle in twisting his involv-
ed and mighty satires, or helped Dis
raeli in ISSUANCE of his eDigrammatic
wit, or helped Cardinal Newman in his
crossing over from religion to religion,
or helped to inspire the enchanted SEN
timents of George Eliot n Harriet
Martineau and Mrs. Browning, or
helped to invent any of George Cruik-
shank's healthful cartoons, or helped
George Grey in founding a British
South African empire, D. kindled the
patriotic fervor with which John
Bright stirred the masses. or had any
thing to do with the invention of the
telephone, or photograph, or the build
ing up of the science of bacteriOlOgy, or
the directing of the Roentgen rays
WHICH nave eNOlulloIilLcu SUI SelS, ~
helped in the inventions for facilitating
printing and railroading and ocean
vOyaging. One is not to be credited or
discredited for the virtue or the vice.
the brilliance or the stupidity of his or
her contemporaries. While Queen
Victoria has been the friend of all art,
all literature. all science. all invention,
all reform, her reign will be most re-
membered for all time and all eternity
as the reign of Christianity.
Beginning with that scene at 5
o'clock in the morning in Kensington
palace, where she asked the archbishop
Of Canterbury to pray for her. and
the knelt down, imploring divine
guidance until this hour. o only in
the sublime liturgy of her established
church, but on all occasions, she has
directly or indirectly declared. Il be
lieve in God the Father Almighty.
maker Of heaven and earth. and in
Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son"
1 declare it, fearless of contradiction,
that the mightiest champion of Chris
tianity today is the throne of England.
The queens book, so much criticised at
the time Of its appearance, some saying
it was not skillfully lone and some
saying that the private affairs of a
household ought not so to have been
exposed. was nevertheless a book of
vast usefulness from the fact that it
showed that God was acknowledged in
all her life and that Rock of Ages
was not an unusual song in Windsor
castle. Was her son, the Prince of
Wales, down with an illness that baf-
fled the greatest doctors of England?
Then she proclaimed a day of prayer
to Almighty God, and in answer to the
prayers Of the whole civilized world
the prince got we'll. Was ~Sevas.opol
to be taken and thousands of bereaved
homes of soldiers to be comforted. she
called her nation to its knees, and the
prayer was answered. See her walk
ing through the hospitals like an an
gel of mercy. Was there ever an ex-
plosion of fire damp in the mines Of
Sheffield or Wales and her telegram
was not the first to arrive with help
and Christian sympathy? Is President
Garfield dying at Long Branch and is
not the cable Under the sea reaching
to Balmoral castle kept busy in an
nouncing the symptoms of the suffer