THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE BLESSED

VIRGIN MARY.*

[MARCH 25.]

And the Angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. St. Luke 1. 28. [Gospel for the Day.]

[We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrec tion through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.]

*

OH Thou who deign'st to sympathize
With all our frail and fleshly ties,
Maker, yet Brother dear,
Forgive the too presumptuous thought,
If, calming wayward grief, I sought
To gaze on Thee too near.

Yet sure 'twas not presumption, Lord,
"Twas thine own comfortable word
That made the lesson known:
Of all the dearest bonds we prove,
Thou countest sons' and mothers' love
Most sacred, most thine own.

When wandering here a little span,
Thou took'st on Thee to rescue man,
Thou hadst no earthly sire:

[This festival, frequently denominated Lady Day, commemorates the annunciation, or declaration made by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, that she should become, by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ.]

*

That wedded love we prize so dear,
As if our heaven and home were here,
It lit in Thee no fire.

On no sweet sister's faithful breast
Wouldst thou thine aching forehead rest,
On no kind brother lean:

But who, O perfect filial heart,
E'er did like Thee a true son's part,
Endearing, firm, serene?

Thou wept'st, meek maiden, mother mild,
Thou wept'st upon thy sinless child,
Thy very heart was riven:
And yet, what mourning matron here
Would deem thy sorrows bought too dear
By all on this side heaven?

A son that never did amiss,

That never sham'd his mother's kiss,

Nor cross'd her fondest

prayer:

Even from the tree he deign'd to bow

For her his agonized brow,

Her, his sole earthly care.*

Ave Maria! blessed Maid!
Lily of Eden's fragrant shade,
Who can express the love
That nurtur'd thee so pure and sweet,
Making thy heart a shelter meet

For Jesus' holy Dove?

[There is no passage in the whole scripture of deeper and more touching pathos than that which records the Saviour's commendation of his mother to the beloved disciple. "When Jesus, therefore, saw his mother and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy Son. Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother; and from that hour that disciple took her to his own home." St. John xix. 26, 27.]

*

Ave Maria! Mother blest,
To whom caressing and caress'd
Clings the Eternal child;

Favour'd beyond Archangel's dream,
When first on thee with tenderest gleam
Thy new-born Saviour smil'd:-

Ave Maria! Thou whose name
All but adoring love may claim,*

Yet may we reach thy shrine;
For He, thy Son and Saviour, vows
To crown all lowly lofty brows
With love and joy like thine.

Bless'd is the womb that bare Him-bless'dt
The bosom where his lips were press'd,
But rather bless'd are they

[The Church in this, as in all other things, follows closely after the scriptures. The mother of our Lord she regards and honours as "blessed among women;" but she pays her no adoration, and raises her into no competition with the "one mediator between God and man." So Bishop Mant,

"Blest among women is thy lot:
But higher meed we yield thee not,

Nor more than woman's name.

Nor solemn Hail' to thee we pay
Nor prayer to thee for mercy pray,
Nor hymn of glory raise;

Nor thine we deem in God's high throne,
Nor thine the birth-right of thy Son
The Mediator's praise.

Mother of Jesus, Parent dear!

If aught of earthly thou couldst hear,
If aught of human see;

What pangs thy humble heart must wring,
To know thy Saviour, Lord and King,
Dishonoured thus for thee!"]

t St. Luke xi, 27, 28.

Who hear his word and keep it well,
The living homes where Christ shall dwell,
And never pass away.

ST. MARK'S DAY.*

[APRIL 25.]

And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder the one from the other. Acts xv. 39.

Compare 2 Timothy iv. 11. Take Mark, and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry.

[O Almighty God, who hast instructed thy Holy Church with the heavenly doctrine of thy Evangelist Saint Mark; give us grace, that being not like children carried away with every blast of vain doctrine, we may be established in the truth of the holy Gospel, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.]

*

OH! who shall dare in this frail scene'
On holiest, happiest thoughts to lean,
On Friendship, Kindred, or on Love?

Since not Apostles' hands can clasp
Each other in so firm a grasp,

But they shall change and variance prove.

Yet deem not, on such parting sad
Shall dawn no welcome dear and glad:

Divided in their earthly race,

[St. Mark is one of the two who are commemorated by the Church as Evangelists; he having written one of the four Gospels, though not called to be an apostle. He was the companion, however, of Paul, and Barnabas, and Peter, with whom he preached the Gospel. He was the sister's son of Barnabas, his mother being that Mary to whose house at Jerusalem the disci ples much resorted, (Acts xii. 12.) He is commonly known in Scripture as John Mark, and is declared by Eusebius to have been the first bishop of Alexandria.]

Together at the glorious goal,
Each leading many a rescu'd soul,

The faithful champions shall embrace.
For even as those mysterious Four,
Who the bright whirling wheels upbore
By Chebar in the fiery blast,*
So, on their tasks of love and praise
The saints of God their several ways

Right onward speed, yet join at last.f
And sometimes even beneath the moon
The Saviour gives a gracious boon,

When reconciled Christians meet,
And face to face, and heart to heart,
High thoughts of holy love impart

In silence meek, or converse sweet.
Companion of the Saints! 'twas thine
To taste that drop of peace divine,

When the great soldier of thy Lord
Call'd thee to take his last farewell,‡
Teaching the Church with joy to tell
The story of your love restor'd.

* Ezekiel i. 9. They turned not when they went-they went every one straight forward.

+ [The whole passage in Ezekiel is most glorious and majestic. The paraphrase here used of the scriptural phrase "straight forward" is Miltonic,

"Yet, I argue not

Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up, and steer
RIGHT ONWARD.

Sonnet to Cyriac Skinner.]

[It is delightful to see that as the first of the two texts quoted as a motto to these verses, exhibits the apostles as men in their contention, the second represents them as Christian men in their reconciliation. Of the same Mark, St. Paul elsewhere speaks as being with him in his imprisonment at Rome, and being a "comfort" to him, Col. iv. 11.]