ROYAL MEMORIAL SERVICE.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13168, 29 January 1936, Page 3

ROYAL MEMORIAL SERVICE.

ST, PAUL S PAHIATUA

STERLING ADDRESS BY IJE V K. L. WARREN.

Rev. K. L. Warren conducted a royal memorial service at St. Paul's Presbyterian Church on Sunday last and the congregation joined their minister with such fervour and reverence that their love of the dead King could not be doubted. The order of the service was: Invocation ; hymn, "Oh God. our he.p in ages past v ; reading, Psalms 90 and 91; prayer; hymn, "O God or Bethel”; reading, Matthew 5:1-9; anthem, “Peace, Perfect Peace” ; prayer; hymn, ‘‘Gocl Save our Gracious King”; dedication; anthem, “Lead, Kindly Right”'; address, prayer; solo, “Crossing the Bar (Miss S. Little) ; hymn. “Abide with Me” ; Benediction.

Rev. Warren, in his address on the late King Geprge, said:

“It is less than a month ago that the voice now silent was heard around the world . . . the King addressing his subjects . . .a father, seated with his family, speaking to his people, members of his wider family, with words of wisdom, courage, and deep human sympathy , and it is as members of that family that we are mourning him to-day. There must be millions who feel as L do, that a Toving friend and counsellor has been taken from us. The world will seem a poorer and colder lilac© without him, and the tones of that well-known voice are echoing in our hearts to-day.” With these words, the British Prime Minister. the Right Hon. Stanley Baldwin, opened his broadcast address on the day following the death of our late Sovereign, King Georg© V. And, though it is vouchsafed to few of us to speak from personal knowledge of our late King, those words fitly express our feelings: feelings none the less true and deep despite the fact that, to most of us, the King was but a name and a svmbol.

The British throne is the oldest in the western world, and with the exception or that of ' Abyssinia, the oldest in the whole world. Thus, while I have no desire to descend to jingoism, I cannot but feel that a monarchy such as ours is the sanest and safest type of democracy. A monarchy is largely what the monarch makes it, and, to the succession of good rulers whom it has pleased God to place over us during the last century, is due very largely the stability and the significance of the British Throne. God

calls a people as siwely as He calls individuals, to serve Him with heart and mind and body and soul. I believe that He has thus called the British peoples, along with others, to serve Him in Jiheir day and generation • . . this without acknowledging the claims of any “isms.

We mourn the passing of our King, a good man. a devoted husband and father, a wise leader and a kind I v counsellor . . . George the Good.

A devoted husband and father . . bound to his lady wife by ties tim nor death cannot sever. To her on

kindly, understanding Queen-mother, our hearts go out in sympathy and prayerfulness. Kings and Queens are so frequently but names to us that we forget that they are flesh

and blood as are we, subject to the same human frailties, needing as much as. nay-, more than we. the prayers of their people and the sustaining Grace of God. So we do pray that the peace of God, which passeth understanding, may help those who mourn the loss of a husband, and father, lover, and friend to bridge the gap of death and to pierce the gloom of the grave. We have hailed with gladness such ot the King’s family who have visited our country, arid have noted the character which bespeaks Christian training and the influence of a Christian home. I wonder if we realise how great a share Alary, the wile and mother, had in moulding the characters of that family in wisely and devotedly training them for their high calling of God, in comforting, inspiring, and counselling her husband and sharing with him the responsibilities and privileges of paientliood. A wise leader and a kindly counsellor . . .so he was. Not continually in the limelight, yet an influence, at times inspiring, at times restraining with his Christian insight and humble greatness, the councils of his people's leaders. He is the true leader who, in sympathetic understanding of his people, recognises their destuiy and their worth more clearly than thev, and. bv sugges-

tion and subtle influence, draws out the best of which they are capable. Such an one was George V. In him were embodied all that is highest in the traditions ol a mighty and a complex people, for whom God, the King of Kings, had and has a definite work in His world. Aye, we mourn the loss of so good a man. Yet our sorrow, is tinged

with thankfulness as we remember the evident blessings God bestowed upon him and his; Thankfulness as we remember the unfeigned enthusiasm and loyalty with which liis subjects hailed the year of his Jubilee. That he and his lady wife were privileged to witness such full and free expression of love and fealty we, and they, have given thanks : Thankfulness as we recall the significant fact that, in the upsetting years of the last two decades, when the foundations of thrones were crumbling, and miglitv social experiments endangered the very fabric of Christian social order, the throne of our King, alone of all the greater thrones of the earth, withstood the chaos of a world in the throes of re-birth, aye, withstood it and emerged chastened, yet stronger than ever. We give God thanks for these things : Thankfulness as w*e remember the load of Empire and the burden ot kingship carried by our late monarch. A man may accept or reject the responsibility of life. If he re-

jeet it. if lie lives solely unto him sell, his soul shrivels and dies. H*. might have gained the whole world but he has lost his soul in the pro

cess. If, on tlie other hand, a man accepts the responsibility of life, then, however exalted or lowly be kis life work, whether God has given him one talent or ten, it becomes his privilege and responsibility to spend and be spent in the execution of ft. King George accepted the burden of 'the high calling ot Kingship, and. throughout the hectic and hideous war and post-war years, bore that burden with humility, with dignity, and with power. Once a king, always a king. You and I, when the time comes, may lay down the burden of our life-work and look forward to a measure ot retirement in the eventide of life. Not so a king. For him there is no release from the load until by deposition or death he is free. No escape from the awesome responsibility of being the secular, and in a sense, the spiritual, head of millions of human beings. No escape irom the fierce light which beats upon the throne until Goii calls him to His Heavenly Kingdom: Thankfulness as we think of the sympathetic understanding note struck by the late King in his broadcast Christmas speech, by which he recalled his people from too self-centred a Christmas to the claims of their less fortunate brothers, “my dear people deprived of their rightful employments” : Thankfulness as we read of li is hist hours, when, in the intermittent states of consciousness, the dying King made some enquiry or expressed some loving thought. "Kind hearts are more than coronets” . .

King George had both. We give God thanks for these things. Death is tlie great leveller. We believe that in God’s sight, there are no rich or poor, no distinction between prince or people, no acceptance of human standards ot judgment, but all are in need of His Infinite Mercy. Yet we also believe that the good men do lives after them, that God is pleased to use the life oi a good man, human though it bo, as an incentive to

others. And the gracious life of our late Sovereign will long be an inspiration and a challenge, not only to his own people, but to all the world.

'Fhe passing of King George recalls the inevitability of God s Holy and Altogether Good laws by which he rules His Universe in justice and in mercy. Prince and people, each does stand daily in need of His sustaining Grace, each is a potential subject of that King of Kings in His Kingdom which shall have no end. Our late King’s life was in truth a living sermon. In my thinking on the complicated social questions ot our age. on the supposed mutual

exclusiveness of Monarchy and democracy. on the clash o? colour and the challenge of materialism. 1 hav** progressively realised the tremendous possibilities ol a good lnonar- \ who, embodying all that is in the traditions ot a nation, and avowedly accepting the Christian way of life, willingly sets out to mould his people to enable them t • take their rightful place in God’s great family of nations. And in the life of George V. there was something which thrilled and inspired me. something felt rather than understood. 1 have tried to explicate it: perhaps it is best summed up in this, that real goodness is not dependent upon material circumstances. not dependent upon position or possessions of mind or body Our Lord said, "where your treasure is. there will your heart be also.” King George’s treasure was in his home and in his Empire, and in doing the Will of God in both these spheres. He is among those of whom -Jesus said. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be railed the ren of God. Blessed are the pure iu heart, for they shall see God.” And we can best honour our departed King by serving well and loyally our, now King, the son or his* father, sustaining him with our prayers, living up to those high C hristian standards which lie so willingly and public allv acknowledges/ The King is dead - . .God give h r: peace. A new King is called . . Go i save the King. And may the God of Pea. e. that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christy that gre it She] herd ot the sheep. b\ the bio i the everlasting covenant make our King, and us. perfect in every good work to do the will of God. working in us that which is well pleasing iu his sight, through Jesus Christ : Lord. And now unto Him Wh. is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Prince ol IV.i. .• an 1 Sariou fa unto Him. I say, even Jesus Christ the Lord, be all honour and glory, dominion and power for ever. Amen