The After-glow of a Great Reign | Page 7

one else but those who believe that Jesus is
with them in the ship; and that when you see some woman going
through the most terrible trouble, perfectly calm, quiet, brave and
cheerful; when some man, over whom all the waves and storms are
bursting, stands there brave, and cheerful, and happy in the hour of trial,
it is because, unheard by the world, he hears a voice in his ear saying,
"Why are ye fearful? O ye of little faith," because, unseen by the world,
he sees Someone standing with His hand upon the tiller, Someone
Whom he believes to have supreme power in the last resort over the

waves, and Who he knows, at exactly the right moment when it is best
for him, will say the word before which every billow and every storm
sinks to rest, "Peace be still."
The trial is that Jesus often seems asleep; the trial is that when the ship
of State labours on in the trough of the waves there seems no steersman
in view; the trial is that when the Church seems overwhelmed by
controversy, and about to be buried under its waves, Jesus makes no
sign; the trial is that Lazarus actually dies and lies dead, and Jesus still
stays two days in the same place where He was; but the magnificent
truth which we Christians believe is this--that, though apparently asleep,
He never is asleep; that He rises from time to time and shows His
strength; that He rose once and burst into fragments the power of death.
They thought He was quite asleep in the grave, but He rose with all His
power, and broke for every mourner throughout the ages that were to
come, the power of death for ever. He rises in the midst of the Church,
He brings the Church in His own time into a peace and calm which
seemed at one time impossible; He rises in our own personal life, and
while the world thinks how that poor man or poor woman is
overwhelmed with trouble, we know that we are in a wonderful and
supernatural calm.
And, therefore, the whole question is this: Have we got, or do we
believe we have got, Jesus in the ship with us? Do we hear His voice
saying, "Be of good cheer; it is I, be not afraid?" As we watch, then, the
moral courage produced in our Queen by her simple, but strong faith, I
beg you with me to pray God to grant us a living faith in Jesus Christ,
which is the secret of strength, and we shall find that it will give us
moral courage, not of earth, which the world can neither give nor take
away.

[1] "Memorials: Personal and Political of the Earl of Selborne." Vol.
IV., 161.

III.

THE RAINBOW ROUND ABOUT THE THRONE.
"And there was a rainbow round about the throne."--Rev. iv. 3.
We are taking, you will remember, one by one--picturing ourselves in
the after-glow which succeeds a great sunset--the qualities which made
the influence of the Queen that we have lost so great, and we have
taken them, not as constituting a prolonged panegyric, but as practical
lessons, and much-needed lessons, for ourselves. And we first
contemplated the truthfulness of one of whom it has been said, that she
was the most truthful being that the speaker--a great statesman--had
ever met. Then we traced in trouble, in public anxiety, amid a multitude
of advisers, the effect and the power of moral courage. We saw that
moral courage is only strong enough to stand up against overwhelming
trouble, when anxieties and difficulties are thick around us, if we really
believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is with us in the ship, and that we
hear His voice say to us, "Why are ye so fearful, O ye of little faith?"
And yet, as we go on, we become more and more aware that we have
not yet penetrated to the central secret of her power; nor shall we. Can
any man name the real secret of influence, or analyse the strength of
personality? But, if we cannot hope to penetrate to the central secret,
we can, with firm and reverent gaze, gather more than we have yet
done of how it was that the Court of Queen Victoria was the purest
Court in the world, and why her influence was so unique among all
civilized nations. And, as we take our third glance, we find that round
her throne, so far as it is possible for human things to copy the divine,
there was a reflection of what the inspired Seer, with open eyes, saw
round the throne of God--a rainbow round about the throne.
What do we understand by a rainbow? Four things,