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, at least. First, the
colours of the rainbow, beautiful and various as they are, blend into
the purest white; secondly, a rainbow, even for the most careless, and
those most untouched by natural beauty, is one of the most inherently
attractive things in the world; thirdly--a rainbow is God's appointed
sign of hope, hope founded on the faithfulness of God: "While the earth
remaineth, winter and summer, seed time and harvest shall not cease";
and, fourthly--strange paradox at first, but true--a rainbow is one of
the most awful things in the world, because it reminds us that what has
created it is the terrible light which, without the atmosphere, would
scorch to nothingness; for, while the sun, through the medium of the
atmosphere, blesses, let its flames, mountains high, touch a planet
that has drifted from its course, and it scorches to death.

With those four thoughts in our minds, let us first contemplate the
rainbow round the throne of God. And we shall now understand that the
first thing which we can learn is, that there is around the throne of
God a circle of unblemished purity. We might have known it; we have
been told it over and over again. "God is light, and in Him is no
dark