S Ex. iii. 7. Faithful is He that calleth you. I Thes. v. 24. In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Isa. [xxvi. 4. SU KEEP YOURSELVES IN THE LOVE OF GOD. Jude 21. M W I remembered the Lord. Jonah ii. 7. Th Lord, teach us to pray. Luke xi. I. F S We are His people. Ps. c. 3. Rooted and grounded in love. Eph. iii. 17. WHATSOEVER GOD HATH SAID UNTO THEE DO. My times are in Thy hand. Ps. xxxi. 15. THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONSTRAINETH US. Whom having not seen, ye love. 2 Cor. [v. 14. I Peter i. 8. A fountain opened for...sin. Zech. xiii. 1. I know that my Redeemer liveth. Job xix. 25. Neh. vi. 9. Acts ix: 6. O GOD, STRENGTHEN MY HANDS. He that refraineth his lips is wise. Prov. x. 19. ONE of us can surely ever forget the thrill of horror with which we heard of the attempted assassination of our beloved Queen. From end to end of her kingdom and from foreign countries there rose the strong, earnest, loyal voice of indignation and sorrow at such an attempt, with the voice of grateful praise to God that He had shielded and protected our Sovereign, and also her devoted, loving daughter, Princess Beatrice. Her beautiful letter to us (given on page 90) will bind us more firmly than ever to her in love and loyalty. 74 GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. We must have noticed with joy how grateful addresses from all parts came pouring in to the Queen. We almost wanted to be an inhabitant of New Windsor that we might each sign our name to the following most touching address: "We, the undersigned, the loyal inhabitants of the borough of New Windsor, request your Worship to call a public meeting at your earliest convenience, that we may have an opportunity of expressing our deep loyalty and love to the person of her Majesty, returning our thankfulness to the Lord for His protection given her Gracious Majesty, our detestation and abhorrence at the dastardly and wicked attempt on the life of our Queen, with the deepest sorrow that it occurred within the precincts of the Royal borough." Her Majesty received this with the following words: "I receive with heartfelt satisfaction the loyal assurance of attachment to my person and throne on this occasion from the representatives of the ancient borough with which the Crown of England has been so long connected; and I desire with you to recognize the Divine protection which has been graciously extended to me." The Queen has received telegrams and letters expressing sympathy with her in almost countless numbers. One day there were 500 telegrams! And the venerable Emperor of Germany was not satisfied with only sending a telegram. He sat down and wrote with his own hand a letter to our Queen, "in which he touchingly alludes to the similar trials which he himself has had." Our Queen will not let one letter go unanswered. She writes some with her own hand, and others she dictates. One little girl wrote to her as follows: "MY DEAR QUEEN,-My papa has just come home and said that some bad man has tried to shoot you. What a wicked man he must be to try to shoot such a good Queen. I hope he will be punished for it. Papa says that he must be mad, and I think he must be the maddest man that ever lived. I am so glad that you have not been hurt, and so are papa and mamma. Good night, and may God bless you. "EDITH E. ELLIOTT." To this she has received the following gracious reply: Captain Edwards has received the Queen's commands to thank Miss Edith E. Elliott for her kind little letter, and to express her Majesty's gratification upon reading it." A special thanksgiving service was held at Windsor, and we know that the Archbishop of Canterbury asked his clergy and their people to remember with earnest thanksgiving the deliverance of our Queen. What a stream of praise, public and private, from every place of worship as well as from every heart, ascended that Sunday to God! WELCOME TO THE SWALLOWS! 75 "We do thank God for His merciful protection to His child upon the Throne. We do it with the greater confidence because our Queen has now held the reins of government for nearly fifty years in the most remarkable manner. There has not been anything like it in any nation. She has combined royal dignity with domestic simplicity; she has combined the utmost purity of her Court with a wise discretion, a penetrating understanding, lofty vigour and wise discretion. She has brought her deep motherly sympathies and womanly instincts into all the varied and stirring events which have happened throughout her long and prosperous reign. To some it is a light matter who reigns, but we know it to be of the utmost consequence. We cannot read the future but we know from past history that it is not many who are able to gather up the hearts of a willing people into one common centre, and still fewer who are able to hold the hearts thus gathered, by gentleness, by power, by wise concession year after year for well nigh half a century in such complete loyalty and wondrous unity. "It is a happy thing that the National Anthem of the foremost Christian people should be derived directly from Holy Scripture, that it should be based unmistakably on the Word of God (see 1 Sam. x. 24). And has not our Queen the sympathy of this vast realm of unlimited area in such a way that all the people shall shout and say 'God save the Queen ?'"* WELCOME TO THE SWALLOWS! ELCOME to the swallows indeed! While other birds fly shy of man, and build in high trees, the swallows come close to him and trustfully place themselves under his protection, building their nests under the eaves of our houses and planting their homes beside ours. Welcome again to the trustful swallow! Welcome, too, to the herald swallow! for the arrival of this home-bird tells of spring having come; and the swallows are as sure tokens of the spring as the primroses. * From a sermon by the Rev. C. A. Fox, Incumbent of Eaton Chapel, Eaton-square, London, March 5, 1882. 76 WELCOME 10 THE SWALLOWS! But it is not every swallow which builds its nest under an eave or in a chimney. For there are four kinds of swallows which pay us their yearly visit. The first to arrive are the Sand Mariens. They make their home in sand cliffs. Did you ever watch them at it? They fasten themselves on the side of the cliff and then work at it with their sharp beak, pushing away with their feet the loose sand. They always make the hole pointing upwards, so that no damp may rest in it. Who taught them? The next visitor is the Chimney Swallow. The third is the Marten, and the last is the Swift. The first begin to arrive about the end of March, and the last at the end of April. The Swift only stays three months with us, and then returns to the South-to Egypt or Algeria, where it spends the winter. The other three kinds stay longer with us, and then have been seen in India. You will be well repaid by watching them, as any other creature which our wonderful Lord has made. King David watched them before us. What he noticed about them was that they loved to be where man was; and he says: "Yea, the swallow hath found a nest for herself, even Thine altars!" And the Prophet Jeremiah watched them also; and what he remarked about them was that they returned and left so regularly; and he says: "The turtle and crane, and swallow observe the time of their coming." Other great men also have written or song about them. Shakespeare calls them "the Temple-haunting Martlet." The Swift has its name from its marvellous rapidity. It has been calculated that it flies 276 miles in an hour; and it never settles on the earth. In allusion to its swiftness, Shakespeare says again : "True hope is swift, and flies on swallows' wings." Yes, welcome to the swallows. Though they have no song there is no bird we love more; so faithful, so trustful, and so cheering. |