Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-06-29

! national ana inter-
national acclamation? What wilt thou,
the Queen of the nineteenth century!
| The seven miles of procession through
the streets of London day after tomor-
row will be a small part of the con-
| gratulatory procession whose multi
tudinous tramp will encircle the earth.
| The celebrative anthems that VIII
sound up from Westminster ABBEY ana
| ST. Paul's Cathedral IN London VIII oe
| less than the vibration OF one narp-
| string as compared with the doxologies
which this hour roll up from all ma
tions in praise to God for the beauti-
| full life and the glorious reign OF TINS
oldest Queen amid many centuries.
| From five o'clock in the morning CT
| 1887, when the Archbishop OF Canter-
| bury addressed the embarrassed ana
weeping and almost affrighted girl OF
| eighteen years with the startling
words, your Majesty" until this six-
tieth anniversary of her enforcement.
the prayer of all good people on all
sides of the seas, whether that prayer
be offered by the three hundred mil
lions of her subjects or the larger num-
Der of millions who are not her SUD-
| iects, whether that prayer be solein-
nized in church, or rolled from great
| orchestras, or poured forth by military
bands from forts and batslements and
| in front of triumphant armies all
around the world, has been and is now,
God save the Queen!" Amid the IN
Vulnerable 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 10 me that the
chief cause of congratulation TO her
and of praise to God has not yet been
properly emphasized, and in many
cases the chief keynote 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 indi-
viduals 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
| do not suppose that she at all heipel
| Thomas Carlyle in twisting his in
volved and mighty satires. or helped
| Disraeli in issuance of his epigram-
matte wit. or helped Cardinal Newman
in his crossing over from religion to
religion, or helped to inspire the en-
chanted sentiments of George Eliot and
Harriet Martineau and Mrs. Browning.
or helped to invent any of George
| Cruikshank's healthful cartoons. or
helped George Grey in founding
British South African Empire, or
kindled the patriotic fervor with which
John Bright stirred the masses, or had
anything to do with the invention Of
the telephone or photograph, or the
building up of the science OF bacteriol-
ogy, or the directing of the Roentgen
rays which have revolutionized sur
gerry, or 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 stu
| COultUlDOTaTteS.
While Queen Victoria has been the
friend of all art. all literature, all
science, all invention, all reform her
reign will be most remembered for all
time and all eternity as the reign of
Christianity. Beginning with that
scene at five o'clock in the morning. in
Kensington Palace, where she asked
| ich nf tn t,nr
for her, and they knelt down, imploring
| Divine guidance, until this hour, not
only in the sublime Liturgy of her Es-
tablished church but on all occasions.
she has directly or indirectly declared.
Il believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth, and in
Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son."
| 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 skilfully done. and
some saying that the private affairs of
q household ought not so to have been
exposed, was nevertheless book of
vast usefulness from the fact that il
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-
| fed 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 well. Was SebastopOl
to be taken and the thousands OF be-
reaved homes of soldiers to be COM
| forted, she called her nation TO its
knees, and the prayer was answered.
See her walking through the hospitals
like an angel Of mercy! Was there
ever an explosion 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 al Long
Branch, and is not the cable under the
sea, reaching to Baimorai Castle. kept
busy in announcing the symptoms OF
the sufferer?