In
a moment, Queen Elizabeth will be holding both the Royal Sceptre and the Rod of
Mercy and Equity in her grasp. She
will be fixed and transfixed by the power she holds in her hands, the power to
bless and protect. Others are
brilliantly clothed, others wear robes and mantles and sparkling jewels, and in
the moment when St. Edward’s crown in placed upon Her Majesty’s head, the peers
may don their coronets, but only the Queen will sit enthroned with double-fisted
authority.
Today,
all that authority is vested by the people and worked out in Parliament. Yet, by the people's choice, warrants
and medals are issued in her name.
Warriors fight and postal workers deliver the mail in her name. They choose to honor and respect Her
Majesty’s majesty. Very little of
what she does, very little, comes of her own volition, but everything she does
issues from theirs. She has much
less power than an American President, though he may wish he had nearly as much
influence.
Before
the Rod and Sceptre are delivered from the Altar, as has been done from
antiquity, she receives a Glove.
Lord Woolton, one of the newest peers at that time, came and knelt
before Elizabeth and presented to her a glove for her right hand, the symbol of
the abolished Danegeld. This glove
reminds her, even in such a glorious moment, superlative beyond measure, to
have a gentle hand in taxation. In
this ceremony within the Ceremony, barons of old had kept their place in the
Coronation in perpetuity, reminding the Monarch that without their supervision,
their management of lands and lakes and laborers, there would be no England
over which to rule.
No
British monarch can set or establish taxation in this day, but once again, at
the Coronation, Majesty represents fealty to the people. Elizabeth and her family have further
taken only very paltry cost-of-living style honorariums from the government,
considering the expenses of their travel, entertainment, staff, and such
matters, and the Windsors have themselves submitted to taxation.
Sometimes, in the places where we reign, be it over pre-school children or five-star
financial conglomerates, sometimes what we DO NOT ASK of others will tell our
tale.
The
Royal Scepter, the Scepter With the Cross, was presented to Elizabeth
simultaneously with the Scepter of Mercy.
The first is ornamented with the Cullinan Diamond, Cullinan I, the Great
Star of Africa, the second largest diamond in the world. It was a potent illustration that she
was given to reign in the steadfastness of “Kingly power and justice.” The Rod with the Dove, bespoke the
powerful injunction that justice was to be so executed that she would never
forget equity and mercy.
“Be so merciful that you be not too remiss; so execute justice that you forget
not mercy Punish the wicked
protect and cherish the just, and lead your people in the way wherein they
should go.”
Elizabeth
was still seated in King Edward’s Chair, facing the altar, not the
audience. Not yet enthroned, she
was in her rightful, royal place in the high-backed chair where centuries of
Monarchs, her relatives of old and of late, had been seated. At that point in the ceremony, even her
husband, Duke of Edinburgh, could not see her face.
The Swords and the Sceptres, the
Orb and Armills, the Spurs and the Ring and the Glove had come to her one by
one from the Altar of God. Her
head was still bare; she was wearing emblazoned gold on top of silk on top of
linen over beaded and embroidered splendor, but very few saw the calm, resolute,
certain, ready, God-fearing humility that those nearest her believed to have
been apparent.
Strength and resolve adorned her
more majestically than her robes and regalia. She would fulfill her destiny by
the grace and in the reverential fear of the Lord. Clothed in majesty, seated in glorious purpose, having every
right to be where she had been chosen to be, she was no usurper.
All that took place that day, and
the essential purpose of this volume, was the extremely evocative
representation on earth of heavenly majesty, and that majesty ever and always
under God and under Him alone. Hear
these words, then, today, and tomorrow we will see her crowned . . . we are
“Elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto
obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ; grace unto you, and
peace, be multiplied.
“Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us
again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to
an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:2-5)
Scepter With the Cross, Wikipedia
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