ST. PATRICK'S.

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

ST. PATRICK'S.

The Very Rev. Father Feryer, of Meanee. officiated at St. Patrick's Church yesterday and paid eloquent tribute to the Jniemory of our late beloved Queen. He said every Catholic had reason to keep her in grateful remembrance, for she was a sovereign in whose reign perfect religious freedom was allowed throughout her vast dominions, owing to which Catholicity had prospered. And when Queen Victoria was compared with other sovereigns of the century, how beautifully she stood forth. The Almighty seemed to have given her in a remarkable degrco the gifts of righteousness and wisdom, qualities so essential to a great soverei»n. He had scriptural authority for saying that God gave to a country the rulers it deserved. If this were true he must say the British nation had been deserving of much, for neTer had monarch combined so many public and private virtues as she whose death the world was now mourning. She was indeed a model of true womanhood, a devoted wife, a loving mother leaving as a rich dowry to her subjects the memory of her blameless and spotless life. She would be remembered in future ages not so much for the splendour of her armies, the strength of her navy, the brilliant conquests achieved in her reign, as for the virtues which emanating from her made her court the purest of all times. No wonder then the chirch was draped in royal mourning, and that the hearts of all were grief-stricken, but still amidst the sorrow Christian hope bade us look up to the realms of the King of Kings where our Christian and most righteous Queen was now reigning in the kingdom prepared foi* her.