Read it through once

A pathetic service was held in St. Paul's Cathedral on the evening of the announced illness, and the Bishop of Stepney spoke in most impressive terms. "As the days have passed, our thoughts and, I trust, our prayers have been centred in the King as he has moved to his Coronation watched by millions of eyes. Only yesterday we welcomed him to London with heartfelt joy. All around us is the glamour of preparation for a splendid festival. The very air is vivid with the glow of popular enthusiasm. From all parts of the earth our brethren have come to rivet anew the links which bind them to our ancient Monarchy. And now come the tidings that this King is laid low with sickness and that the great day has been postponed. We are bewildered. We cannot realize, except in imagination, the dislocation of the life of a whole Empire." Meanwhile, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York had asked their clergy to hold intercessory services on June 26th, and Cardinal Vaughan, for his Church, had given similar orders. "The finger of God," he wrote to his clergy, "has appeared in the midst of our national rejoicing and on the eve of what promised to be one of the most splendid pageants in English history. This is in order to call the thoughts of all men to Himself. The King's life is in danger. Danger being imminent, let us have immediate recourse to the Divine mercy and by public prayer seek His Majesty's recovery." The Chief Rabbi held special Jewish supplications and the Chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales telegraphed to Sir Francis Knollys their hope that it might please God to spare the King's valuable life so "that he may rule for many years over his devoted people."