By:
Edited By Algernon J. Pollock.
WHEN Queen Victoria was young, she was present at a performance of the oratorio―the Messiah. Her court ladies informed her that it was not etiquette for the Queen to rise.
When, however, the performers came to the Hallelujah chorus, which Handel drew from the passage in Revelation 19, where the Lord is seen coming out of heaven, having “on His vesture and on His thigh written KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (vs. 16), the young Queen rose to her feet with tears in her eyes, trembling.
Exalted as was her position, Queen over dominions on which the sun never sets, she thus showed her homage to the KING OF KINGS. She hereby acknowledged two things, if her act was heartfelt and intelligent, which we are assured it was.
First, she acknowledged that the Lord Jesus was alive. She did not rise in homage to a dead Christ. A dead Christ would have been no Christ at all. A Christ, who had died, and failed to rise again, would have been conquered by death, held a victim in its cold and, strenuous embrace, and not have been, what He is, the Conqueror over death. We are assured that Queen Victoria bowed before a living Christ, One who has atoned for sin, and was exalted “a Prince and a Saviour” (Acts 5:3131Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. (Acts 5:31)).
Second, she acknowledged His lordship. And well she might. With all the profound respect due to royalty, and Scripture says, “Honor the king” (1 Peter 2:1717Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. (1 Peter 2:17)), the Queen would come, as the meanest subject in her realm, to Christ, as Saviour, and trust Him and His atoning death for salvation. There is only one way. There is no royal road to salvation. And Queen Victoria, we are assured, trod the way the dying thief trod, and the way that every poor sinner has trodden since that day, feeling their need-the way of repentance and simple faith. There is no other way.
We can understand how the whole assembly at the performance would rise when the magnificent Hallelujah Chorus was reached, but alas! with many it would be done because it was the custom, because it was fashionable, because it was homage to Handel’s marvelous genius, and would signify nothing vital or heartfelt or eternal.
But with the youthful Queen we are assured it was far different. Her whole subsequent career bears out our belief. Are we not all familiar with the picture in which the Queen hands to a dusky monarch the Bible as the secret of England’s greatness, and did she not love to read the Bible in the cottages round her Balmoral home?
One thing is clear, if she confessed Jesus as her Lord, as we believe she did in rising to her feet in the way we have described; if she believed that God raised Him from the dead, as we believe she did, for she would not have risen at the name of a dead Christ, but of a living Saviour in heaven, she was eternally saved. Hallelujah!
We have God’s Word for that. We read, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)).
Reader, are you saved? You may be, and it is your own fault if you are not. Remember, if not saved, you are lost, but, thank, God, not lost forever. “Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW, is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:22(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2)).