THE VIRGIN MARY.

ON every thing which is told concerning the mother of our Lord, the Christian heart dwells with exceeding interest and fond delight. From the mother, the child derives all the elementary and necessary part of education both of body and of mind, and comes from her hands with his constitution already formed, and with his character already determined. We are therefore naturally led to admire and reverence the mothers of men whom we admire and reverence, and we find this feeling sanctioned by the example of affectionate duty towards them, which such men invariably exhibit. But it is seldom that much is known of such mothers. The lives of their sons are not committed to writing before the history of their homes has been reduced to a few traditional anecdotes, and even were materials more abundant, little more could be detailed than would suffice to illustrate passages in those lives. Thus the fame of these women consists in having been mothers of such sons, and in nothing more. A name with this single fact attached to it is, generally, all that survives. But it does seem strange, at first sight, that so meagre an account (at least as derived from any authentic source) should have come down to us concerning one who bare in her womb, and nursed in

her arms, the Saviour of the world. A little consideration will suggest to us that it is well that so little is known, and that this point has been ordained by the providential care which God exerts over His Church.

The human heart, in its corruption and alienation from divine purity, is naturally desirous, not of raising itself to a true conception of God, but of bringing God down to the level of its own gross conceptions. Hence it is readily inclined to deification, forsaking the true God for other and false gods which it has made to itself. What wonder then if men should go on from reverencing the mother of the son whom they reverence, to worshipping the mother of the son whom they worship? Had, therefore, Scripture given us any considerable detail of the conversation between our Lord and Mary, as between son and mother, filial dutifulness would have been so conspicuous, that the forementioned corruption, once established, would have received an authority which few would have gainsaid. To judge from other cases, Scripture would have been fearlessly and plentifully quoted in justification. The numberless legends, framed to supply this very want of Scriptural history, prove clearly enough what kind of use would have been made of a more full, authentic account. The narrative of the New Testament is very remarkable when considered with this view. The accounts of Mary are exclusively confined to the period of her son's childhood, and of his ministry. From the latter alone could any argument on the question be drawn. But not only are the notices here very few and brief, but in every one

(except where He speaks to her from the cross), He addresses her not with the deference of a son, but with the authority of a prophet. So much is this the case, that some have thought it necessary to vindicate our Lord's character from the charge of harshness. Such defence we shall see to be quite uncalled for. But, when we look at it in the same view with the history of the Christian Church, the fact is very singular. So narrow is the foundation whereon to build the structure of the life of Mary, the mother of our Lord.

It was amidst the throb of intent expectation which the evidently near fulfilment of the prophecy delivered to Daniel by the angel Gabriel had caused throughout the East, that this same divine messenger was sent to Nazareth to announce to a maid, who had been betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter, the glad tidings that she should be the mother of the Christ. They were both of the house of David, and their union brought together two branches which had been separated from his trunk from the first. If she was astonished at the glorious apparition, she was still more so at the affable salute from such a being, for he said to her, "Hail, thou that art highly favoured. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women." She received the splendid annunciation with the deepest humility, and calm submission to God's will. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to thy word," was the answer, in which she expresses a deep sense of her unworthiness of such high consideration, and timidly, yet thankfully, acquiesces in the exceeding dignity conferred upon her. How manifest is here that

awful sense of responsibility for a precious gift, that meek resignation to unhoped for glory, that entire faith in God's promises, which, in their prosperity, so signally distinguishes the children of God from the children of Mammon. What damsel from among the rich and powerful of the world could have contained her boastful exultation at the promise of a much less glorious offspring. Verily at this moment Mary showed herself the fittest mother of Him, who, being in the form of God, took upon Himself the form of a servant.

After the Angel's departure, full at heart of the heavenly tidings, she went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, to whose pregnancy He had referred her as a sign, she being long past the age of bearing. She lived in the mountainous region of Judea. She immediately saluted Mary in the very words of the Angel, and in the very purport of his message, "Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb," and hailed her as the mother of her Lord. Then it was that, full of the Holy Ghost, and overpowered with this extraordinary verification of the Angel's message, she burst into that beautiful hymn of praise and thanksgiving, which the humble Christian of this day, reviewing the blessedness of which the incarnation of the Lord has put him in possession, how he has been spiritually exalted far above all that the proudest and mightiest can covet or keep, finds so appropriate an expression of his feelings. Mary stayed with her consin three months, and during this time three persons, all subjects of especial divine promise, and two of them honoured with an Angel's visit, con

versed together. Zachariah, husband of Elizabeth, would, as priest, be conversant with Scripture, and familiar with the interpretation received in his day. What then must have been the thoughts and discourse of these parents of the Messiah and of his forerunner? How must the words of Scripture have burned in their hearts, and burst forth from their lips? How joyful the hymns, how beautiful the prayer of this chosen household. And yet with all their peculiar privileges, with all the call upon individual feeling, what comparison will the subject-matter of their adoration bear with that of the Christian's prayer; with that, for instance, on which Mary herself, before she died, based her pleading at the throne of grace. In what a different sense could she repeat, towards the close of life, every clause of the hymn which she sang in the house of Zachariah. When the everlasting High Priest, having finished his sacrifice upon earth, had taken his stand with his censer, filled with the incense of the prayers of the saints, before the mercy-seat in heaven, what a deep sense of spiritual fruition would be found by her in such expressions as, "My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour:" "He that is mighty hath done to me great things" "He hath filled the hungry with good things."

Elizabeth's time was on the point of expiring when Mary left, and thus went away with a still surer pledge of the certainty of the Angel's promise. She returned home to encounter a short trial of shame and obloquy. The holy burden of her womb began to be manifest, and it shows how she had won the affection of her husband, when he was desirous of