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

Deen IN such constant touch With the
throne of heaven as the throne Of Vic
toria. From what l know of her habits,
she reads the Bible more than she
does Shakespeare. She admires the
hymns of Horatio Bonar more than
she does Byron's "Corsair." She has
not knowingly admitted into her pres
ence q corrupt man or dissolute wo-
man. To very distinguished novelists
and very celebrated prima donnas she
has declined reception because they
were immoral. All the coming centur-
les of time cannot revoke the advant-
ages of having had sixty years OF Chris
tan womanhood enthroned in the
palaces of England. Compare her
court surroundings with what were
the court surroundings in the time of
Henry VIII, or what were the court
surroundings in the time OF Napoleon,
in the time of Louis xvi, In the time
of men and women whose names may
not be mentioned in decent society.
Alas! for the revelries, and the worse
than Beishazzar feasts, and the more
than Herodian dances, and the scenes
from which the veil must not be lifted.
You need. however, in Order to appre-
ciate the purity and virtuous splendor
Of Victoria's reign to contrast IL some
what with the gehennas and the pan
demoniums of many of the throne
rooms of the past and some throne
rooms of the present. l call the roll OIL
the queens of the earth. not that
would have them come UP or come
back, but that l may make them the
background of picture in which l
can better present the present septenar-
ian, or soon to be an octogenarian, now
on the throne of England, her example
so thoroughly on the right side that
ali the scandal-mongers in all the ma
tons in six decades have not been able
to manufacture an evil suspicion In re-
gard to her that could be made to
stick: Maria of Portugal, Isabella and
Eleanor and Joanna OF Spain. Catha-
rine Of Russia, Mary of Scotland, Maria
Tersea of Germany, Marie Antoinette
of France, and all the queens Of Eng
land, as Mrs. Strickland has put them
UGlOT6 us III utI Chai t"NA'~ W.
umes: and while some queen may sur
pass our modern queen in learning,
and another in attractiveness OF fea-
ture. and another in gracefulnesS CT
form and another in romance or MIS-
tory, Victoria surpasses them all in
nobility and grandeur and thorough
ness of Christian character. hail her!
hn IN iSt, N
wife, the Christian mother, the Chris
tlan Queen. and let the Church of God
and all benign and gracious institu-
tons the world over cry out, as they
come with music and hammered host,
and million voiced EuzZa, and The bene-
dictions of earth and heaven, What
wilt thou, Queen Esther?"
tendance on that siXtieth anniversary
coronation, | invite you, not to the an
niversary of coronation, but to a cor
onation itself-aye, to two coronationS.
Brought up as we are, to love as no
other form of government that which
is republican and democratic, we. liv-
ing on this side of the sea, cannot SO
easily as those living on the other side
of the sea, appreciate the two corona
lions to which all up and down the
Bible you and / are urgently invited.
Some of you have such morbid ideas
of religion that you think Of it as 60
ing down into dark cellar, or out on
a barren commons, or as a riagellation;
when, SO far from dark celler, it is
a palace, and instead of a barren COM
mons it is a garden, atoss with the
brightest fountains that were ever rain
bowed, and instead of flagellation ii is
coronation, but coronation utterly
eclipsing the one whose sixtieth ami
yersary is now being celebrated. II
was a great day when David. the little
king who was large enough to thrash
Goliath, took the crown at Rabbah--
q crown weighing a talent of gold and
encircled with precious stones-and the
people shouted, Long live the king"
1t was a great day when Petrarch, sur
rounded by twelve patrician youths
clothed in scarlet, received from SEN
ator the laurel crown. and the people
shouted, Long live the poet!" 1t was
great day when Mark Antony put
upon Caesar the mightiest tiara of all
earth, and in honor of divine authority
Caesar had it placed afterward on the
head of the statue Of Jupiter Olympus.
1t was a great day when the greatest
of Frenchmen took the diadem of
Charlemagne and put it on his own
brow. 1t was great day when, about
an eighth Of a mile from the gate of
Jerusalem, under a sky pallid with
thickest darkness, and on a mountain
trammeled Of earthquake. and the air
on fire with the blasphemies of a mob,
a crown of spikes was put upon the
pallid and agonized brow Of our Jesus.
But that particular coronation, amid
tears and blood and groans and SILVER
ing cataclysms, made your own corona
ton possible. Paul was not man to
lose his equilibrium, but when that old
missionary, with crooked back and in
famed eyes. got a glimpse of the crown
coming to him. and coming to you, If
you will by repentance and faith ac-
cept it, he went into ecstacies, and his
poor eyes flashed and his crooked back
Strengthened as he cried to Timothy,
There is laid up for me crown of
h. . Inn