t
in the coming reign, and through the coming century, there may be a
rainbow round about the throne.

[1] Rev. E. Lyttelton, "Training of the Young in Laws of Sex," pp. 16,
17, 109.

IV.

THE LAW OF KINDNESS.

"In her tongue is the law of kindness."--_Prov. xxxi. 26._

We have reached our last lesson from the life and character of Queen
Victoria. Some will be surprised that this lesson should have been
kept for the last one, as the kindness and sympathy of the late Queen
was a proverb among her people. But, if we come to think of it, it is
far best to have kept it to the last. Mere kindness, apart from
sincerity, apart from moral courage, without the rainbow of purity,
counts low among the virtues. We have known kind people, have we not,
who were weak, who were fickle, who were even treacherous, and there is
a sad truth in that half-cynical statement that it is the province of
the wise to remedy the mistakes of the good. But what captivated the
whole Empire in the sympathy of Queen Victoria was its strength; that
one so strong should be so kind; that one so fearless should have so
much sympathy; that one whose moral standard was so high should be full
of mercy and gentleness. It was that which gave a force to those many
stories which came to us about the visits to the little lonely cottages
in the Highlands; the telegrams to the women huddled by the pit-mouth
in their misery; the letter to the mother of the young officer who had
died for his country--what gave force to it all was its strength, the
fact that it was no passing impulse, but the deep beating of a true
mother's heart, that it was the outcome of character; and that, as is
so beautifully said in this description of the virtuous woman in the
Book of Proverbs: "In her tongue was the law of kindness." And when we
turn from the pattern to the prototype--and never, for a moment, during
Lent, can we afford to take our eyes off Jesus Christ Himself--when we
turn from the Queen to the Saviour, in Whom she had so simple and so
touching a faith, the first thing we find to our comfort is that He,
too, felt the need of sympathy. Is there any picture in the whole of
the New Testament more touching than that which shows us how He goes
just before His greatest trial to seek sympathy from His followers, how
He, the Head, the Leader, does not disdain to turn to the very
followers who trusted in Him for sympathy? "Couldst thou not watch
with Me one