THE DEATH OF PRINCE LEOPOLD.

Kumara Times, Issue 2376, 9 April 1884, Page 2

THE DEATH OF PRINCE LEOPOLD.

j In the Presbyterian Church, Kumara, | on Sunday evening, the Rev. George Hay preached with special reference to the death of the Duke of Albany, | Prince Leopold. He took aa his text the I—s verses of the 13th chapter of First Book of Kings, from which he delivered an impressive discourse on the trials, disappointments, and sorrows which fall to the lot of those who are called to wear the crown; in the course of which the rev. geutleman said:— I have mentioned that, " Time, which carries on its wing the fatal call to poor and rich, the beggar and the prince, told of Solomon's death." What woes are caused by death in this world. They are seen everywhere; the earth is arched with graves. In almost every dwelling death is even now doing his work of misery. The palace cannot exclude him ; and he comes unbidden iuto the cottage. He finds his way into the dwelliug of ice in which the Esquimaux and the Greenlander live; to the tent of the Bedouin Arab and the wandering Tartar j to the wigwam of the Indian and to the harem of the Turk; to the splendid mansion of the rich as well as to the digger's hut. The palace of kings is no stranger to that grim and inexorable tyrant whom wealth has never bribed, tears have never moved, and beauty has never softened. This solemn truth has from time been read home with startling effect to the heart of the British nation. What sovereign ever swayed the sceptre of empire with such consummate wisdom aud skill since the days of Solomon as our beloved queen, Queen Victoria 1 and who of the sovereigns of the earth has so adorned with every christian virtue the exalted station of the throne as she who for now forty-seven years lias ruled with impartial sway the first and greatest nation of the earth ? And yet who < f the meatiest of her subjects his h:< I more terrible manifestation that d.-arh is no respecter of pm-sons ? What house in EngUu.d v.vuuty yoara ago

was not adorned with the engraving of our motherly Queen, with her kingly husband by her side, full of health and noble christian deeds, and surrounded with uine bright and happy children ? But, alas ! for many years the nation has known and thonght of her only as a widow. And as if the death of the husband and father was not enough in one royal life, the fell destroyer must lay his hands on her children. But death has nothing to boast of in his breaches in the Royal Family. Of every one of the royal departed we may aay " They do rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." Despite the triumph of death, they still live, and their memory is dear to us. We think of the Queen's husband as Albert the Good ; of the Princess Alice as the model Christian wife and mother ; aud of the pious Leopold as the christian Prince, the pioneer of science and art, the royal philanthrophist and philosopher a mother's favourite son, her solace in the years of her mourning. Therefore, death's conquests are not all victories. He, it is true, has filled the nation's heart with sorrow, bowed to the dust once more the heart of an aged mother, and darkened with grief the future life of a young mother, and left her in widowhood ; but he has thereby bound with invisible cords the affection of a vast and enlightened empire to the dynasty of the illustrious house of Hanover for ever. It is therefore with mingled feelings of sorrow and joy that we this evening join hands with this day's mourning assemblies throughout the British Empire in our expression of sympathy for onr noble Queen and the younger royal wife and mother who have sustained such a great and heartrending loss.

The sermon was listened to with deep attention.