CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 6917, 28 January 1901, Page 2

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.

Special memorial services for our late Queen were held m the Congregational Church, Broad-street, yesterday, conducted by the Rev. Ssiduey J. Baker, when the building was filled morning and evening. At the morning service Mr Baker preachedjfrom I John, HI, 2, on " The Promise and Unity of Life," and also gave an address to the children on "Victoria the Good." -'In the evening, the preacher said that he had be°n pondering upon the most fit and appropriate truth of Scripture on which to' Dase his sermon; and had chosen " She hath done what she could." Our beloved Queen had done her best. And how much that implied to one in the exalted station of the noble and Sovereign Lady now taken to her reward. MiBaker then proceeded to note the directions in which the Queen had specially made her influence felt and " wrought her people lasting good." The Queen had taken a lively interest and prominent part in effecting needed social reforms among the people. She had also been a lover and seeker of peace, exercising a restraining influence upon the more bellicose members of her Cabinet as m 1864, when Lord Palmerston wanted to declare war against Germany or as at the time of the American Civil War, when the English people resented the arrest of two confederate envoys upon a British ship upon the high seas. Further, following her coronation, when she declared her resolve to grant the fullest religious liberty and toleration to her subjects her influence had always been cast on the side of the full enjoyment of the rights of the individual conscience. In other ways the Queen had also always manifested an interest m the work of the Christian Church and its great missionary enterprises abroad. She had also ever been the leader in any true philanthropic work, and in this had liti, f? *&"£• mi amid •& *c had whbW 6 Wht fl°JV f abk*eless We with her court and character pure and an example to mankind. What that meant might be gathered from a recent remark of Frederick Harrisons,"ifka common observation that the widowhood and retirement of the Queen have bS followed by a deplorable decline in the duded by saving that wtayTe many monarchs yet to sit „Z f i! ancient throne £ & there can be none who will fill M U e a ' o the" te 6.: 01*1 *? d P^°™teTve. ot the Bntish people. Appropriate hymns were sung ani anthems rendS by the choir, including "Lord, lav not our sms to our charge* and "Comfort Thou the soul of Thy servant,"^ bM,™? "K^My draped S black hangmgs and white flowers.