In Memoriam Services in Waimate.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 102, 29 January 1901, Page 3

In Memoriam Services in Waimate.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 27.

St. AUGUSTINE’S

In Momoriiun Services wore conducted, morning and evening, by the Vicar, the Rev. McKenzie Gibson. At Matins the -ehnrcn was crow ! d in every part. The altar, ff-c; rn and choir pews were draped in black. The Stuclholrae Mounted Rifles, under Captain Garland, and part of the Waimate Rifles, under Lieutenants Hurst and Jackson, paraded to the church and occupied the front pews. At the opening of the service the organist (Mrs Owen) played the “Dead March in Saul” in an impressive manner, and at the close, part of Mendelssohn’s beautiful " Funeral March.” The hymns and lessons were appropriate, and the service throughout was of an impressive nature. In the prayers for the Royal Family, the words “Edwaid onr King” Wer-e ■aub -turned for “ Victoria o ir Qn'- >n”' Tne hffv. McK f ne/ u> (-rinuon took no his text Matthew, XX'.’, 21: “ Wrii done, thou g-iod and ..uriiffl servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Tneii presence there that in iroing m iy Well be regard' d as a tribn e ot re 'Bronco and respe ;t to the memory 0 that sweet and gracious lady who for more than sixty years has ruled in the hearts and liv -s of the E '.giish speaking peoples tluoighout th w and. “ How mile did they think lit Sund.y that in one siior w ek they would meet to mourn s ) great a lo ; s. But a few weuks an > Her I'.laj sty was visiting In.-ia- d s-.-mingly with no signs of ago upon li an But a few d tys ago h i sympathies were alive o the sorrows o - the sufferers and m earners by tin. 8 rath African war; but a. fewd n sW.ee she h id expressed recog. fit ts n o the service: ren Fred by the colon e in the Empire’s need. It- seem-d as , ff-r mental powers had been qff'ifl e t u by the trials to which they had o t. subjected. But these had told - -hat: suddenly broken down the strength oi this beautiful life, and she was summoned away beyond, to the pl--ce of everlasting peace. If any-ne ev.r lu-ard the words of the text, most surely it was God’s chosen servant, Victoria, our late Queen. To day we sorrowed, rot so much for our beloved Queen, as though tine loss were iter’s ; v.e rather grieved for ourselves, who had lost so shining an example for K iglaiid, which, in the troubled days 1 i come, could ill bo spared. Xol for -h e'we sorrowed, for site had passed j,;io the realms of light, end had joined the citcle of her beloved ones, who long years ago entered th ■ eternal home. And it c.’.u.d not be irreverent at this time to picture the on-peak-able joy of that minion which we believe to have been now ccnv,[initialed with that princely soul who. forty y-ars ago, pas-M from her side wearing the white flower of a blameless iife. For him. too, after all these years v. e will write, “ Bk-ssed are th--1 who di» in the Lord, for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow i hem.” It was very difficult, in the course of one shorts -rmoti, to deal with the w -alth of m ileriai presented by -he Queen's J. e or o ic hundredth part of it. What in ire, then, o ml h<* -1 ' than point, our r, \ on wlnit lie deea. d ■» have been the gi-at secr.-t of th .i noble, life? Tilt; explanation of her -pm. Mid influence, the charm of Iter quoa-dy presence, is rot to bo tvac d aim e ; o her • xa'ted station, to tier high office as the first lady of the land, but rather to the fact that, being placed by the providence of God in ilia;, esah-d station, she was true —abs da;e ; y true and fnithf tl to h-r sacr cl trust. From the mo nent when, ; -3 years ago, sh.,was aroused rom h.-v young slumbers by the Arehb Imp of Gantt to y bearing the news that she was Qu-:.. n or England, right down to th-: day of ,r-r death, she realistd her great ■••‘-■no - si bin lies, and ev-.-r strove, G-sl t dping her. to he true to her sacred trust. The first- wands the young Q teen uttered on being told by the A-'flibksbnp of her new digni.y were tiiese : “ I a-dc your prayers on my behalf,” and then and there these two knelt down together, and, like the young King of Israel in olden tim--. otr b loved Queen ffgau her reign b. asking ii.om the Most High, who rtileth over the kingdoms of men. an understanding heart to judg ; so great a people. And in her speecn after the proclamation, this solemn recognition uf liei great trust is spoken of : “ This awful responsibility is impo-ed upon me so suddenly and at so early a period of my life, that I should feel myself utterly oppressed by the burden were I not sustained by the hope that Divine Providence, which has called me to this work will give me s! length for the performance of it. I H-cai d the Throne with a deep sense of the responsibility’ which is imposed upon me, but I am supported by the c msciousness of my own right inteut nns, and by uiy dependence upon the protecting ami ot Almighty God.” We may, indeed, glean from the journals of the time, that notwithstanding the ’excitement and enthusiasm inseparable from so auspicious an event as the accession to the Throne of Eng’aud, the young Queen was fully alive tithe gravi yof the occasion, and the weight of her new responsibilities caused her to be overcome by her emotions more than once on that trying day. On reaching the Palace after the Proclamation she told her mother, the Duchess of Kent, that the first request she Lad to make in her regal capacity was that she might be left alone for 2 hours. The Duchess understood the r- ason of that request, and for the first day in her daughter’s life she left her alone. The young Queen retired in human solitude, but iu the presence of her Maker, to commune with herself upon the duties which would lie before her. . . A truly noble beginning to what has proved beyond question a noble life. From that moment when our much-loved Queen fell upon her knees before the great Sovereign of all, asking for guidance and strength to «cp© w ith the exigencies of her high tffice, through all the checkered experiences of a joyous yet sorrow-i Stricken iife, her Majesty ever shewed a consistent belief in a Divine Providence, a belief which led do A conscientious

dutifulness in her every act and action, and a fulfilment of her great trust beyond all praise. To all sbe has been a splendid example of one who, though living amid the fierce light that beats upon a throne, and experiencing through a long life, such difficulties, trials and disappointments and responsibilities as fall to the lot of very few, has kept her sacred trust inviolate, and in every detail of that trust has lived so simple, kindly and thoughtful a life that no Queen of any ago can at all compare with her. During these sixty-three years of her reign there has been such an expansion of the Empire as to our ancestors would have seemed incredible, while in triumphs of science and the arts and progress of the English race they are without parallel in the history of the world. And in and through it all onr brloved Queen took a deop anti continuous interest. But no matter in what direction the development of the nation proceeded, or how great the triumphs in science or in arts, Her MajO-ry, wmie adiuiriiig greatness in nil walks of life, ever put goodness before it. And this was the underiving secret; of her magnificently successful reign—viz., her unswerving loyalty to the great trust commuted to her, and her deeply religious life, a religious Jifo > expressing itself as all religious lives should, in a life of duty, liar -sty's religious life, through -ixr.y • iut-e img years, lived in the ii nee lignl of the whoio world's constant olh-vrvauo*, was ev. r to care nueh and to e-re always fur doing her L.ty. VVhofli -r hi matters ot Statu, or in matters of domestic life, she h way s on! main cd a high sense of the importance anil the responsibility of her office ; not its mporlancc or its aggnindtsem >nt as r gaid.nl herself, bur ns ivgaid -d ! nose .in nc-ha:ely depend ut upon her and th ' groat nanon at largo. In nil our country's auna's we can

Did no Kuig or Qnoen ut England who Tuts irivd so much or so tinny in the hearts of her people as Queen \ictori.i. Mo wun-t.ir the gaui.r

Fiighrii spe;: i;ig peiipb-s the worid >ver are liruvu togeth-n* today by .ainiiuon consent to oil ;r prayer and praise to God fur the beneficent reign of so bunetlcciu a Queen. Looking back over the history of England's past there surely is not one ruler to whom wit can point with such pride, such love, anti such fiiial t.Midenmss as ih-; veuf-rabl • and august Sove e'ign whose memory \u> ciierish to day — yea, ciierish with a devotion beyond ail words, n loyalty exceeding till expresrio And i a-.k, shall not we in our hnu: . e ,-phere follow, as we are .ible, in siicu right Royal footsteps ? With onr '■■’••ii loved (.I-icetl let ns, too, h ive a ; ; t apnr.'oiiUion of the trust eommiMed to our care, and, like lu-r, let us also have a proper idea of the eiip.-rtauco of tLie same; not, as tn ner case, its itupormnee merely as it regards ourseives. but as it icgards others. Surely there is no one who is not quite able to sea, when it is printed out to him, that he is part of a whole, a part of a great conm.-cU-d whole. Our life is not like a grain of sand upon the seashore; other lives nave preceded ours, other lives tiro bound up in ours—our conduct and oar character are acting (whether w-.--,vi!l or no) upon others. Those who are -interested in us, who I j-, e ns, who are our friends, who wot k ■vuh us ; yea! who play with us. havrelationships with others, and our influence upon these pa->ses on. And ao in this way, our common human 1 .e is not, as he said, like grains of sa; d, but rather hits meshes in ■> ta't.re, v-acii one mesh touching and holding in place four or five, and uf these four or five others, so that if one m-'sh breaks or gives way, the whole fabric is affected. And thus as one weak m ih in a fabric may spoil th-.-entiro piece, so in the sain.; way a society may be imperilled by the failure in duty of one me über. Let us, then, with the guod Queen’s inimitable example before ns, urge on • mother to a tar taller appreciaiio; of .■.lie impel taiice of our own individual Le, tho importance of our own uarticular work, our responsibility lov the trust conferred upon us, and this not meiely as affecting our own future but because we are each placed by God to be members of a family, a community, a nation, or a church. And thus doing we shall must fi.tiugly commemorate Victoria s glorious reign, and so when our call comes we too may hear tho g.ml-le accents of the Divine Master saving to us, even as to our beloved Queen ; ‘ Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.’ ”

St. PATRICK’S CHURCH. A memorial service was conducted by the Rev. Father Regnauk ou Sunday at 11 a-.m. Thero was a crowded congregation. In the course of his sermon the preacher said that he could not imagine a grander and more touching scene than that of a whole empire mourning the death of the Queen. Their sorrow was deep, and no wonder. Their loss was great; in fact, the death of Queen Victoria was a loss to the whole world at large. Here the preacher referred to the agitation which was set on foot iu the thirties to deprive the young Princess of her rights, and to give the Crown of England to the Duke of Cumberland, when Hume and the Irish members of Parliament exposed and dm nounced the plot to alter tho succession to the throne. O’Connell, the uncrowned King of Ireland—no greater man than whom has lived during this century —O’Connell offered the stalwart arms of 100.000 Irish Catholics to defend the person and the rights of the young Princess Victoria Thanks to their watchfulness she ascended the throne, and became the lawful Queen of England. She was then invested with the supreme authority, the autnority of God, to rule over her subjects. “ By me,” says the Divine Spirit in the Book of Proverbs, c.viii., “kings reign and princes rule,” And St. Panl says, “ He that resisteth their power resisteth the ordinance of God. for all power is of God.” She Was invested with an authority which gave her a right to the loyalty, respect, and veneration of all her subjects. “ Be subject to kings,” says St. Peter; “ honour and obey them, not only for

wrath, but also for conscience sake, for as it is the will of God.” And St. Paul adds: '‘Pray for kings and all who are in high station, that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life.” During her long reign, the longest in English history, Catholics have never failed in the performance of those duties inculcated to them by God. They have yielded to no one in the loyalty, respect, and veneration which were due to their sovereign. They have served her faithfully, both in peace and in war, in promoting the welfare of the State at Home, and in defending her rights on the battlefield. And this may be said of the Irish Catholics in particular, “ for,” says a well known writer, “whatever may have been the depth of Irish popular hatred of particular British Administrations, yet it was never, in all her long migi-, sullied by a word of disrespect to the person of Q i •eii Victoria.” In the years 1819, 1831. and 1900 she visited her Irish .-.objects. In 1810 the young Queen came to tha.t dis'rosefu! cou.u'ry close in the w ke of a terrible famine which had s vept away a million of her subjects The Irish people were poor, heartbroken, dying. V*’t when the sweet young face of their Queen appeared before iff m they, for the moment, forgot their woes, and never, in ai : her days, did Her Majesty meet with a more splendid and mov ontluiri-a-,tic outburst of popular afiVcdon, and that, too, as she herself’ wrote, in country which had so recently been s'.vrpt by famine and scourged with, the iron rod of martial law. When, in the last year of iter reign, she was led again to the Iri-ffi shores by a feeling of gratitude, site ivi-'f with the same popular respcC, Veneration, am; aIT.-ctiou. for if the ag- of chivalry and respect for woman srill exists it is in Ireland, where it has n-. v. r wane ' since the daps of good King Brian For nearly tony years tin* Que ' nnforrnoai ely yielded to the m counsels of her advisers. Hid : been otherwise she might have bee file meins of putting an end to ilia: di.-astrons legislation winch has been so b vie-fii! to Ireland for such a King period of years, and of binding th-* two ff‘au-,1- by a bon ! of mutual goodwill and ini,'rests. And now that the Queen is do id f have no hesitation in saving that onr sorrow will be as re:: and no ff-s deep than that of any of her .subjects. In the presence of death Christian folding and common decency bid ns show forth marks of ivspect, s.n-row. and symp-i'iiy In this we may well walk in the footsteps and follow the example of onr r.piri tint! rulers and guides, and of the best and noblest men in every land. There are other reasons which emiflo th ’ dep-il’ed Qu'-cn to our gratitude and Venerati m. I shall not specie of the part son has played in politics, in pr- serving the peace of the world a* far as she was able and in pr nuodng the happiness of her subj-c's. Thousands of secular writers will till that part. But as a Catholic priest J. cannot pass over what she has done

fur the sanctity of hum; life. Her influence in that respect has reached far and with* for the gfeat-'St good of Iter Empire. Site began her long r.-igo in a period of easv going ino-a's. Tite exainnles left her by her piv-cio c ssors w-n; not, of themselves, con dneive to Christian virtue or dom-stic nurity; but the young Qnt-on had h •«:) brought up by a g--od and careful -ou— , S'no In rsrif post -ss«'d beautiful i F-als. whicii sh--,- was d -t-rmined ni foilmv. Soon she tn id > hor Court the model of Europe, and bv her quiet iomestio life, her perfect u non with her husband, her careful training of her children, she raised the a am lard of family life and made h m.sehold virtues fashionable in most classes of society. In a word, she set not- only her people, but the whole of Europe, in example of domestic. Christian virtue, which probdny d;;l as much for tim sanctity and di-cncy of h mic :-f ■ in England as the preaching of a O and pnlpt -, Now another KMg -, up in the tin one our duty is evident. We also owe him allegiance, respect, and veneration ; we owe him the help of onr prayers. May his reign b - long and prosperous ! Father. Kegoault concluded by ex oxhorti ig his hearers to ofien think of death and of eternity, and to male-? the work of their salvation the great work of their lives, that they, too, one day may sit on a glorious and immortal Throne. After mass tho “ Dead March in Sanl” was played by the organist, Mrs Wal-ffi.

On Monday th* Rev. Father R'gnanlt announced to tlie children of St. Patrick’s School the prod aura tion ot tho new King, for wtiotn throe hearty cheers were given, and the children were granted a holiday. At Waihao in the afternoon and in Waimate at night the Rev. Father O’Connell made mention of the same sad subject. WESLEYAN CHURCH. The memorial service at St. Paul’s Wesleyan Church was held in the morning. Thero was a large congee gallon, including detachments of the Waimate Rifles and Studholiue Mounted Rifles. The Rev. J. Blight’s sermon was a sympathetic and eloquent tribute to the memory of the Queen. He said no such profound impression had ever in tho history of the world been made -by the death of any merely human being. There had never been on earth before so great an empire as that over which Queen Victoria had ruled. The territory she ruled over occupied from a fourth to a third of the land surface of the globe. Pier subjects numbered four hundred million souls, comprising some thirty or forty different races of men. On this account alone Her Majesty’s death caused widespread sorrow. But the depth of feeling stirred by her death was not due to the vastness of her empire; it was caused by the fact that she had won the love of her subjects by the pure womanliness of her character. She had been a true wife, a true mother, a true parent to her people, especially to the poor and suffering. Mr Blight gave many incidents from the Queen’s life illustrative of her character. What had probably endeared the Queen to her subjects more than anything _ else was her sotrows. These had, resulted in a deep sympathy with the suffering

amongst her people, though thoughtfulness for others had been especially characteristic of the Queen from her earliest years. Hymns appropriate to the occasion were sung during the service, -and at the close of the sermon the choir «aug “ The Christian’s Good Night.” After the Benediction the organist, Mrs W. J. Dairy, piayed the “ Dead March iu Saul,” the congregation, standing with bowed heads.

KNOX CHURCH. The Rev. Blight preached the satin sermon ic Knox Church at night.