Address by Bro. Rev. Canon Dr. Long
at a special Grand Orange Lodge service in Schomberg House
on March 8, to mark the 300th anniversary of the death of
King William III.
The purpose of this service is to remember with
thanksgiving the life, work and worth, of King William III,
Prince of Orange, who died on March 8, 300 years ago.
This is the tercentenary of the one king of England who made
an indelible impression on the lives and liberties of the
people of Britain and Ireland.
Because so much has been written about him, and in such detail,
it is necessary here only to remind you that literature is
available to you and from the pens of our own Orange Institution
historians.
The emphasis on the Williamite Wars, and especially the Battle
of the Boyne, by word, picture, map and re-enactments in stage
and screen, means that William is famously known as a great
soldier-King and commander in the field.
The intention here is to think of him as a statesman, man
of faith and integrity, champion of Protestantism. His convictions,
Christian based, ensured a victory in the fight for those
human rights and privileges which he saw as integral to citizenship
in a good society. He contended that everyone should be free
to practice his faith unencumbered by those pressures of religion
and politics which adversely affected his life. William determined
on changes that allowed people to think for themselves, free
from the yoke of a Roman Catholicism, which sought to dictate
to them and to regulate their lives for them.
William was a coincided and committed Protestant! By birth,
a Presbyterian he was little concerned with the differences
in order and government in the churches, and he encouraged
Protestants, regardless of denomination, to live peacefully
and happily in their communities, and with Roman Catholics
who were good fellow citizens.
He accepted the invitation to come to England because it
allowed him the opportunity to preserve and prosper the Protestant
religion and to protect the people from religious persecution.
He had also the wider motive to remove England from the baleful
influence of Louis XIV of France.
William had three measures he wished to effect - to widen
the basis of the Church of England so that Presbyterians could
join it with a good conscience; to admit Protestants to all
offices under the Crown; to allow all subjects legal protection
in the practice of their religion.
His attitude to Ireland was to change the policies of James
II ".... to reverse the state of things which had previously
existed to put the Protestants under the feet of the Roman
Catholics, and to use (the Roman Catholics) as James' instruments
in establishing arbitrary power".
King James lacked ability and discretion and was often regardless
of the feelings of others, self-opionated, he thought it strange
that the results he wanted were not attained, but he always
had others to blame for his failures.
William was born at Binnenhof in the Hague on his mother
Mary's 19th birthday and with his father, William, in the
next room in his coffin - he had died of smallpox. His maternal
grandfather, King Charles I of England, had been beheaded
in 1649. The baby, born on November 4, 1650 was in the care
of his mother and grandmother, the Princess Amelia, and great
aunt Elizabeth of Bohemia, the sister of Charles 1, and he
was much affected by female influences in his formative years.
His mother died when he was 10-years-old and of smallpox.
By then he suffered from asthma a conditon which affected
him for the rest of his life.
The war between Holland and England meant that his uncle,
Charles II of England, was debarred, as an enemy alien, from
being William's guardian. William was made a child of state
with commissioners in care of him.
The changes and chances of early life had their effect on
a man who always knew about personal problems and the need
to overcome them. He did, to become a fine statesman and to
earn in council chamber and battlefield the respect of his
subjects, friends and foes.
When he married Mary, daughter of James II, he was greatly
benefitted for the lady was blessed with sound sense, and
became a worthy Queen in her own right. She was heir to the
Throne and they reigned together in a partnership in which
there was mutual respect, love and trust. She predeceased
him in 1694 another victim of smallpox. They had married in
1677. He tended her personally in the final week of intense
suffering until she died.
William has been severely assessed as soldier and king, but
his primary contribution to the good of humanity was to create
a balance of power so that no one country would dominate the
others.
He was a born leader with a personaility fitted to the role,
a good man, an able man, and above all a Christian man.
We do well to pay our respects to King William III. We do
better when we emulate him in his attitude to God, to life
and to people.
We admire King Wiliam's commitment to a Protestantism under
attack in his day. We are forced in these days as "defenders
of the faith" with attacks on Protestantism, and the
enemy is within as well as without. We have reason to be concerned
that many who call themselves Protestants have no religion
or one different from that of the Protestant churches as described
in their creeds, formularies, and vows of commitment to membership
and ministry.
There are those on the churches who have a faith which is
not Christian for it denies the veracity of the great doctrines
of the Christian faith. A person may believe as he will but
he must not be allowed to live off those who neither desire
nor require his ministrations, the lack of discipline in some
of our Protestant churches is an affront to those who believe
the truths once for all delivered to the saints.
As Orangemen we stand firm for the centrality of Christ in
Christianity; the special place and purpose of the Bible in
Christian faith and practice; and for the need of those who
believe in Christ to bring others to faith in Him.
There is always need for that undivided loyalty to Christ
which ensures that no one is in doubt what we believe about
Him in whom we depend for everything.
If this thought on the life and example of King William makes
us determined to be more worthy Christians and more effective
Protestants this service will have been well worthwhile.
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