FUNERAL SERMON AT CHISELHURST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 60, 3 May 1873, Page 7

FUNERAL SERMON AT CHISELHURST.

Many distinguished Frenchman, and not a few English people, attended St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, at Chiselhurst, on tho Sunday morning when the Rev Mr Goddard made an address on the late Emperor .Napoleon 111. Th» Empress, not being equal to appearing in public so soon after the Emperor's death, remained at Camden House, where mass whs celebrated at about eleven o'clock in the room in which the Emperor died, by the Rev. \'. Ouin-Lacroix, one of the canons of St. Denis. "I he Imperial Piinoe (Napoleon IV.) attended mass at St. Mary's, accompanied by his suite, at haK-paßt nine, and waa not present at the eleven o'clock mass. Mr Goddard, in the course of Ins sermon, said : — It is not long since we s»w him at the altar of God, muking open profession, open acknowledgment of his deep faith in the mysteries of our Holy Church ; and tho faith and the piety then shown are imprinted at least in my memory so deeply that they can never be effaced. It is told of him that once when a boy he came home to his mother without shoes. His mother Baid to him, " Louie, what have you done with your shoes ?" And he answered, " Mother, I met a poor beggur boy ; he had no shoes- so I gave him mine." And this is his history all fhrough his life. To those who kt:ew the .Emperor, never was there a character so noble, so good, anJ so generous. Eren his enemies were obliged to say that the good in him remained uppermost. It is not for me, and it never will be for me, in the house of God, to review hi 6 political acts. What we hare to do is to seek a foundation for our hope for him in his belief in our Lerd Jesus Christ. There was in his character a nobility, a generosity, and a goodness of heart which filled all those who cume into contact with him with enduring love. His fidelity to his friends, his gratitude for favors done — and gratitude is a virtue so little practised in the world in our days — were aloue sufficient

1% ™ fan* amongrt men. But there is something higher still. There was in him a noble forgiveness of his enemies of which those outside his own circle have no conception. It was over and over again in his power to crush those who opposed him because of crimes committed against the law 5 bufc he refused to make use of his potw o further las political aims. He forgave hi* enemies, and in this, as in iso many ofher things, he fulfilled the highest precepts of the Christian law. After the solemn funeral service on Wednesday last, there cam* to us in the sacristy a Marshal of Prance, one who had commanded and fought before Sebastopoi. The eyes of the warrior «SFJ T f,?" 1 5\ he a PP roi »«ned Lord Bishop who had officiated and addressed him m a voice broken wHi emotion : "My j.ord Bishop, I thank you that you have come hither to lay on this fS? ?% •?• 5f5 f y on ir s&rd * and re S ret9 - He me "t« ««m 'ell. lor lie had, indeed, a noble heart. The sermon had been spoken amid sobs and tears. Then followed an interval of silent prayer; and the benediction concluded the service, but the congregation was very loth to leave the chapel. The Due de Bassano approached the grille and, kneeling, inserted his hand, and touk from off the cofßn a flower .pray and an evergreen leaf, to carry to the Empress as a souvenir of the service, Then the ladies of the smte and the female visitors passed singly before the bars of the Mcnrfj, each kneeling for a moment among -he violets that strewed the passage. The rest of the congregation followed, a priest meanwhite saying a low mast. It was quite" an hour before the church was tuwllv cleared, for many ladies rematod long kneeling in silent prayer by the benches adjacent to the archway leading into the sacristy: