announced this day! Here if we attempt to see this great sight, we seem to hear that voice which called to Moses out of the bush which burned with fire and was not consumed, "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." The case of Mary was unlike that of Zacharias. Though the words have almost the same sound, their meaning is different; as was the temper of the speakers. She seems to have been "troubled" not so much at the sight of the Angel, as at his saying. And again afterwards, it is not so much the fact she doubts; but, believing the promise, she simply inquires as to the manner of its fulfilment." She "staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to perform."

IX.

THE SAME SUBJECT-continued.

St. Luke i. 30-38.

And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy

1

1 Compare vv. 12, 29.

* It was not with her as with Zacharias before, seeking a sign; or as with Nicodemus afterwards, suggesting a

doubt. The Angel has addressed her as about to become a mother. She only asks how this shall be, seeing she is still a maid.

cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

2

The Angel proceeds to announce to the Blessed Virgin, in words which recall that ancient history, when "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," that the Word should be made flesh, God become man, in a supernatural way. The same Spirit, who formed the first Adam out of the dust of the ground, should, by His Divine power, of her substance produce the second Adam, who should be called in an infinitely higher sense than the other "the Son of God."3 The Angel proclaims the human name, at which every knee shall bow, of Him whom we thus acknowledge to be also Divine; and in words, echoing ancient prophecies, with which she was we may not doubt familiar, announces to the maiden mother of the Son of God that He should be " great" in a special sense; no other than the Christ, the looked-for Messiah. And he bids her consider the case of her cousin. Elizabeth, a foreshadowing of her own; for the less sometimes assures us of the greater: and finally, in words of the Lord Himself, to Abraham before," and to His Disciples after," resolves all into the Omnipotence of God. The holy Virgin adds her Amen, accepting the sorrow with the joy; ready for the joy set before her to despise the shame. And the Angel, his message delivered, lingers not, though these we are told are things which Angels desire to look into. This is all we dare say on this mystic place of Scripture. To this Ark of

8

rants for that clause of the Apostles' Creed concerning our Saviour, that He was conceived by the Holy Ghost," and "born of the Virgin Mary;" or as it is still more expressly stated in that of Nicæa, 66 was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made Man." The Collect for the Annunciation in a single sentence sums up the human history of the Son of God.

God we may not put our rash, unhallowed hand. For "without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh." This is enough for the faithful.

X.

VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.

St. Luke i. 39-45.

And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: and she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

Mary, now first informed by the Angel,2 proceeds to salute her cousin Elizabeth. From distant, despised Galilee, Mary makes her way to that city of Judah3 to which Zacharias had retired, and where dwelt the venerable pair. "Mary is the first missionary."5 At her coming, Elizabeth, inspired, proceeds to prophesy, repeating the Angel's salutation." She expresses her sense of the condescension shown by the holy Virgin's visit; for the greatness of the Son is reflected upon the Mother; we value the casket for the jewel it

12 Sam. vi. 6.

2 v. 36 above.

3 Supposed to be Hebron.

4 v. 23 above.

5 Quesnel.

6

v. 28 above.

"Man is a creature of extremes.

The middle path is generally the wise path; but there are few wise enough to find it. Because Papists have made too much of some things, Protestants have made too little of them. . . . Because one party has exalted the Virgin Mary to a Divinity, the other

contains. In like manner our spiritual Mother, the Church, is glorified by the presence of Christ; and "the haughtiness of man is here condemned by this humility of the Mother of Jesus." Elizabeth, now become a Prophetess, proclaims the fact she experienced, the sensation she felt, as of one bounding for joy at a desired voice, when there first fell upon her ear the salutation of the Mother of her Lord. Her unborn babe becomes an unconscious figure of the witness he was to bear. She cannot but contrast the Virgin's ready faith with her own husband's slowness of heart to believe. And-for the less is sometimes serviceable to the greater-God makes use of Elizabeth's ministry to confirm the holy Mother of His Son.

XI.

THE SONG OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

St. Luke i. 46-56.

And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty And his hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy: as he spake to our fathers, to Abra

can scarcely think of that most highly favoured among women with common respect." Cecil's Remains, p. 356. The Puritans made repeated attempts to banish the Magnificat from the Book of Common Prayer.

1 Quesnel.

2 Gen. xxv. 22. The LXX employ there the same word.

3 St. John i. 7, 15, 29, 30, 32, 34; iii. 30, 31.

ham, and to his seed for ever. And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house.

"And Mary"-for now it is her turn who humbled herself and was exalted among women-takes up her parable, and pours out that prophetic hymn, which has formed part of the Church's daily Even-song as far back as the service can be traced. Most significant is the place which there it occupies. For it is after the Lesson out of the Old Testament that we have this song of Mary, witnessing to the fulfilment of the promises made unto the fathers. In this Song of the Blessed Virgin there seem two dominant ideas; one, a joyful sense of surprise, that she, the affianced wife of the carpenter (though, as we have seen, of royal race) should be thus chosen out of all the women that were in Israel to be the Mother of the Messiah.3 The other note most to be observed in the strain is, what seems the burthen of the Song of Zacharias afterwards, a thankful, adoring acknowledgment that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God had now fulfilled unto their children. The whole Hymn declares a mind stored and imbued with the language and with the spirit of the Scriptures. Here you may see, as in a glass, her spirit of humble and hearty thanksgiving, her true modesty, her deep humility, her quiet joy in the present mercy of God, her firm faith in the future 10 and in the

1 Procter on the Common Prayer, p. 244.

2 This Magnificat as it is called, from its first word in the Latin, as it is in part an echo of those earlier hymns of holy women in the old time before her, so is it partly an anticipation of the words of her Divine Son. Before we had Hannah, in like manner, rejoicing in the Lord (1 Sa. ii. 1-10; see also Gen. xxi. 6); and afterwards we hear our Lord Himself exalting the humble, and abasing the exalted (St. Luke xiv. 11; xviii. 14); warning the full (St. Luke vi. 25), and blessing them that hunger and thirst after righteousness (St. Matt. v. 6; St. Luke vi. 21).