KING EDWARD. (From the Leith Observer of I4th May 1910.)
KING EDWARD.
From the Leith Observer of I4th May 1910.
At the close of his sermon in South Leith Parish
Church in the forenoon, the minister of the parish. Rev.
John White, M.A., said :—
“‘The translation of Elijah and the ascension of
Christ’ was the subject I had chosen for to-day’s meditation,
ere the sad news of yesterday plunged the nation
into sorrow. ‘ Knowest thou that the Lord will take
away thy Master from thy head to-day ?’ Yes ; but we
also know by the glorious revelation of the risen and
ascended Lord that He will not leave His people
desolate and bereaved. His presence is with His
people, and He will uphold the nation and guide it in its
sorrow ; His outstretched hands are full of benediction.
The subject has a sad appropriateness to the sorrowful
circumstances of the hour. With tragic suddenness our
Sovereign King has been taken away from our head.
The heart of the nation was deeply troubled on Friday
morning with the news that the King was seriously ill,
and before that day was closed, there came, with a keen
sense of personal as well as of national loss, the
message—’ The King is dead.’ There was no period
of protracted suffering, no interval of diminished energy,
of lessened zeal to take from the perfection of his brief
but illustrious reign: like Elijah, he was translated from
the midst of his daily duties to the rest that God has
provided for His people. It seems such a short time
since he assumed the great and sacred burden of
sovereignty, and undertook his arduous duties—which
he has so zealously fulfilled—of promoting the highest
interest of this kingdom and the daughter nations. It
was a difficult task for any one to succeed the Good
Queen Victoria; but Edward, her son, has amply fulfilled
the most sanguine hopes. He set before him the
aim—to walk in the footsteps of his beloved mother,
and to merit the same unfailing loyalty and affection.
It is his highest merit that to-day he has earned the same
trust of the people, and won the same deep affection,
and that now he hands on, with his royal mantle, a
heritage of goodwill to his son.
“When Queen Victoria—the pattern of all monarchs
—passed away, she left the Crown to her son, enriched
with something grander than precious stones—she
vacated a throne which she had strengthened, if not
actually saved, by her pure life and her sacrificial love
for her people. In the short years in which King
Edward has worn that crown he has added to its lustre,
and by using the throne as a loftier height from which to
scan the purpose of his people, he has greatly enhanced
its majesty and stability. With one consent, Victoria
was hailed as the Queen<&f Queens, and during a reign
of unprecedented duration and of unequalled progress,
she ruled over her Empire as the Queen of hearts.
With equal unanimity—though short was the time for its
expression—has King Edward been recognised as the
Peacemaker, the Moderator of the Nations. There is
no more honourable title to which a monarch could
aspire. Brief, in comparison with the Victorian reign,
but full of potent and still vital influences for good, has
been the beneficent rule of King Edward. It will not
be easy to estimate what he has done for the great
Empire of Britain, and for international harmony. In
his diplomatic wisdom and tact and personal popularity,
more than in aught else, lay the unwritten warranty for
the peace of Europe.
" May this passing of the King, that has touched so
deeply the heart of the nation, bring a blessing in its
train ! And as the thoughts of men are by this great
national sorrow unloosed, though only for a moment,
from the grip of bitter partisanship, and freed from
bondage to worldliness and gaiety, and given over to
the great ascension truths that lie behind life here and
hereafter, may it be that they will come back from their
brief communion with the King of Kings, purified and
enriched, to guide the energies of this people towards a
more earnest love and service of the fatherland and of
our nation's God. The King is dead. Long live the
King ! To-day, in the midst of our national sorrow, we
briefly commend to God the young King on whom has
fallen the mantle of sovereignty. We mingle with our
grief for the departed King, and with our sympathy for
his widowed Queen, a welcome to their children, the
King and Queen who succeed them. God grant them a
double portion of His spirit, that they may faithfully
meet their great and'imperial responsibilities, that they
may find a deep place in the sympathies and affections of
a loyal people ; that their reign may be a long and
happy one over a progressive and prosperous Empire ;
and that in all their doings, in public and in private,
they may be directed by God's holy spirit. ' O Lord
save the King; and mercifully hear us when we call
upon Thee. O Lord save Thy people ; and bless Thine
inheritance.'"
Source-South Leith Church
